Chetumal, Mexico: Hurricane Dean weakened further to a Category 2 storm after hitting Mexico's Caribbean coast on Tuesday, the US National Hurricane Center said.
When Dean made landfall earlier on Tuesday, it was a Category 5 cyclone, the strongest possible on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
The hurricane flooded streets in Mexico, blowing the roofs off houses and battering resorts where tens of thousands of tourists and residents huddled in shelters.
Water surged down a main street at thigh level in Chetumal, a city of about 150,000 people near where Dean made landfall. Broken trees and street lights lay strewn around.
After killing 11 people in the Caribbean, Dean landed around the cruise ship port of Costa Maya, near the border with Belize. But there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Tired tourists
The storm lost some of its power over land and was later downgraded, although forecasters warned that roaring winds and rains were still a threat.
Tourist resorts like Playa del Carmen and Cancun, devastated by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, appeared to have escaped major damage.
Litter and leaves were scattered on the streets in Playa del Carmen, where tourists emerged at first light after an uncomfortable night in a hotel converted to a shelter for 400 people. "I didn't sleep, I had backache," said Italian tourist Massimiani Luca, 31.
Dean is likely to continue weakening over land but should still be a hurricane when it heads out into the oil-producing Campeche Sound, the US National Hurricane Center said.
