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Hurricane slams into Mexico

Slow-moving storm expected to swing east toward Florida

— PHOTO: AP

SMASHING RAINS: Power lines knocked down by winds from the approaching Hurricane Wilma in Cancun, Mexico, on Friday.

CANCUN (Mexico): The fearsome core of Hurricane Wilma slammed into the island of Cozumel on Friday, starting a long, grinding march across Mexico's resort-studded coastline. Wilma flooded streets, knocked out power and stranded thousands of tourists in sweltering shelters.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the hurricane's outer eyewall — part of the fastest-moving section surrounding the eye — had hit Cozumel, a popular stop for divers and cruise ship passengers where hundreds of residents and 970 tourists were riding out the hurricane.

The hurricane was expected to make an agonisingly slow journey to the tip of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and sideswipe Cuba — 220 km east of Cancun — then swing east toward Florida.

Cuba evacuated nearly 370,000 people in the face of the storm, which has already killed at least 13 persons in Haiti and Jamaica.

``The most important thing now ... is to protect lives,'' Mexican President Vicente Fox said in a broadcast address to the nation. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm ``has the potential to do catastrophic damage.'' — AP

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