By Isela Serrano
CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Rina strengthened on Tuesday as it neared Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, threatening beach resorts with heavy rain and dangerous waves but steering clear of Gulf oil platforms.
"Rina could become a major hurricane at any time," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Some cruise ships revised their travel schedules and the governor of Quintana Roo ordered hundreds of people evacuate the fishing village of Punta Allen on the Yucatan peninsula's
western coast on Tuesday night.
Sporadic rains showered the tourist hub of Cancun on Tuesday, which was devastated by the massive Hurricane Wilma in 2005, the most intense storm ever recorded in the Atlantic.
Wilma also ripped across Cuba and Florida, killing dozens of people and causing billions of dollars in damage.
North of Cancun, around 80 tourists fled the tiny island of Holbox, famous for whale sharks and flamingos.
On the usually tranquil white-sand beaches of Tulum further south, waves surged to 5 feet and hundreds of tourists left, some cutting their vacations short.
Authorities in the city of Cancun were preparing 50 shelters ahead of Rina, while worried residents stocked up on gas and 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.
Honduras, Central America's No. 1 coffee producer, issued a tropical storm watch for Roatan and Guanaja islands, but the hurricane swerved clear of coffee and sugar-growing regions, still recovering from weeks of nonstop rains.
Rina is now a Category Two hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, packing winds of 110 mph. When sustained winds hit 111 miles per hour storms are considered major Category Three hurricanes.
Rina, the sixth hurricane in the Atlantic season this year, was located 250 miles southeast of Chetumal, Mexico late on Tuesday evening.
"The center of Rina will be moving near or over the east coast of Yucatan ... on Wednesday night and Thursday," the Miami-based NHC said.
DOLPHINS MOVED TO SAFETY
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.
Right now there are around 80,000 tourists in the state of Quintana Roo, mostly foreigners relaxing at big hotels in Cancun.
The storm could slam into other tourist hubs like Playa del Carmen and the island of Cozumel, popular with scuba divers and cruise ships, and will also graze the small Central American nation of Belize.
Belize issued a tropical storm watch along its coastline north of Belize City.
Carnival reportedly revised eight cruise itineraries to avoid the hurricane and Norwegian Cruise Line put out an alert on its website saying it was closely monitoring Rina's path.
But Cancun's international airport and all the ports in the Gulf of Mexico remained open on Tuesday.
Most of Mexico's major oil installations are further east in the Gulf of Mexico and far away from the hurricane's path.
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.
Downpours that started on October 12 over Central America have affected more than 1 million people in the region, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
El Salvador and the United Nations launched an appeal for $15.7 million to help 300,000 people affected by the floods.
In Guatemala, the situation was 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 Jackie Frank)
