By Isela Serrano
CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Rina closed in on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula on Tuesday, threatening beach resorts like Cancun with heavy rain and dangerous waves but steering clear of oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Honduras, Central America's No. 1 coffee producer, issued a tropical storm watch for the islands of Roatan and Guanaja, but the hurricane swerved clear of coffee and sugar-growing areas in the region, still recovering from weeks of non-stop rains.
Rina, now a Category Two hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale packing winds of 110 mph, is on the cusp of becoming a major hurricane.
When sustained winds hit 111 miles per hour storms are considered major Category Three hurricanes.
Authorities in the city of Cancun were preparing 50 shelters ahead of Rina, which is expected to make landfall on Thursday morning. Worried residents cleared out store shelves of emergency supplies like water and canned tuna in case businesses decide to shut down.
"They have already started putting away beach chairs and umbrellas at the hotel just to be safe," said Michelle Thomson, a vacationing accountant from Texas shopping for souvenirs at a mall in Cancun.
Companies that run marine parks around Cancun moved more than two dozen dolphins, some of them pregnant, housed in areas in the hurricane's path to safer sites further inland.
The storm could slam into other tourist hubs like Playa del Carmen and the island of Cozumel, popular with scuba divers and cruise ships on the Yucatan Peninsula, and will also graze the small Central American nation of Belize.
Belize issued a tropical storm watch along its coastline north of Belize City.
Authorities also issued a hurricane watch for the east coast of the peninsula from north of Punta Gruesa to Cancun, and a storm warning from Chetumal to Punta Gruesa.
Local tourism officials said they expect cruises will start canceling stops at Cozumel by tomorrow but Cancun's international airport remained open on Tuesday.
Right now there are 80,000 tourists in the state of Quintana Roo, mostly foreigners relaxing at big hotels in Cancun.
Rina, the sixth hurricane in the Atlantic season this year, was located 275 miles east southeast of Chetumal, Mexico on Tuesday afternoon.
STORM SURGE
The hurricane could dump 8 to 16 inches of rain over the eastern Yucatan peninsula from Wednesday morning. "Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the hurricane center said.
A huge storm surge is also possible, raising tide level as much as 7 feet above normal along the coast.
Concerns about more rains in southern Mexico and Central America has helped support coffee prices in recent days after the region was soaked by heavy rains over several weeks that destroyed roads to farms and ruined some coffee trees.
Downpours started on October 12 and have affected more than 1 million people in the region, the United Nations said on Tuesday. El Salvador and the UN launched an appeal for $15.7 million to help 300,000 people affected by the floods.
In Guatemala, the situation is similarly grave, with a half million people hit by flooding and 50 percent of the country's roads blocked by landslides or overflowing rivers.
Fields of corn and beans have been destroyed in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, affecting people in the poorest areas who depend on those crops to feed their families.
(Writing by Mica Rosenberg in Mexico City; editing by Todd Eastham)
