Hurricane Wilma weakened slightly from its record strength in the Caribbean sea Thursday, but threatened to pound tourist resorts on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula with a 3-metre tidal surge and 230-kilometre-per-hour winds.

From the Yucatan to Honduras, Cuba and the fragile Florida Keys island chain, tourists sought to flee and residents boarded up homes and stores as authorities urged people in the path of the deadly hurricane to evacuate. Wilma killed 10 people in Haiti early in the week.

Wilma was expected to miss oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, which are still reeling after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September, but Florida's orange groves were at risk.

Wilma briefly was the strongest Atlantic storm on record in terms of barometric pressure on Wednesday after growing with unprecedented speed into a Category 5 hurricane, the top rank on the Saffir-Simpson scale of intensity.

Such storms can cause catastrophic damage to built-up areas. Densely populated southern Florida was in Wilma's projected path by the end of the weekend.

Wilma's top winds had weakened to 230 kilometres per hour as of 8 am EDT (1200 GMT) yesterday. The storm was 285 kilometres southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, and travelling west-northwest at 12 kilometres per hour.

Forecasters at the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said it could strengthen again.

The storm's core was projected to pass over the northern Yucatan near Cozumel early today, sending a 3-metre surge of water over the coast, forecasters said.

Mexican authorities began evacuating 10,000 people from the coastal state of Quintana Roo. Many flights out of the resort city Cancun were full.

"We'll get on a bus or take a car, we're very determined," said German vacationer Ulrike Gruber, 27.

Fuelled by warm Caribbean waters, the season's record-tying 21st storm logged top winds of 280 kilometres per hour on Wednesday and a record-low barometric pressure of 882 millibars.

That meant Wilma was briefly stronger than Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and killed 1,200 people, and Rita, which hit the Texas-Louisiana coast.

Hurricane Centre Director Max Mayfield said Wilma was likely to slice across southern Florida as a formidable hurricane over the weekend.

Florida gets ready

Florida was hit by four hurricanes last year and has been struck by Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Rita this year. State emergency officials warned everyone south of the Tampa-Orlando corridor to prepare for Wilma.

Stung by criticism over a slow federal response to Katrina, the administration of President George W. Bush said it was working with Florida officials to prepare for Wilma. "This is a very frightening storm that is on our doorstep," said Monroe County Mayor Dixie Spehar in the Florida Keys.

Authorities in the Keys, connected to mainland Florida by a single road, ordered tourists out on Wednesday. It told the islands' 80,000 residents to evacuate on Friday.

Storm warnings were also in force for Honduras. More than 1,000 people died in Central America this month after Hurricane Stan triggered mudslides.

Wilma was expected to dump up to 64 centimetres of rain on mountainous parts of Cuba, up to 38 centimetres in the Yucatan and up to 20 centimetres in Honduras and the Cayman Islands.

Wilma was the year's 12th hurricane and tied the record for most hurricanes in a season set in 1969.

The season has six weeks left and has already spawned three of the most intense hurricanes on record. Hurricane experts say the Atlantic has entered a period of heightened storm activity that could last another 20 years.

Cuba suspended schooling in the western province of Pinar del Rio and began evacuating thousands of coastal residents. Workers hastened to protect tobacco seedlings for the next harvest of leaves for Cuba's

Source: China Daily