Yucatan Resorts Dodge Emily Bullet

No Deaths Or Major Damage Reported On Mexico's Riviera Maya Coast

(CBS/AP)  Hurricane Emily is losing some punch, but probably only temporarily, as it pelts Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula with rain and wind. It's expected to pick up strength again as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico to northern Mexico and possibly southern Texas.

Overnight, the storm slammed onto land as a powerful Category 4 storm, snapping concrete utility poles with its winds of 135 mph and punishing waves along the region's famous white-sand beaches. By mid-morning, it had been downgraded to Category 2.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Emily made landfall near Tulum — 100 miles south of Cancun. The northern eyewall — where the worst weather would be expected — passed directly over Cozumel, it said.

No deaths were immediately reported from the storm's landfall. Emily earlier was blamed for four deaths in Jamaica, and two helicopter pilots were killed Sunday while attempting to evacuate an oil rig off the Mexican coast in high winds.

The hurricane knocked out power and phone service to much of Mexico's famous Riviera Maya coastline, where tourists rode out the storm in sweltering, makeshift shelters set up in schools and hotel ballrooms.

"We have some trees down, we have some damage, but the people are safe right now, and they are in their rooms," desk clerk Fernando at the El Cid la Ceiba Beach Hotel in Cozumel told CBS Radio News.

The hotel is advising its guests to stay inside for now.

"Until we clean up the area, we recommend them to be in the room, take a rest," he said.

"The damage is relatively minor," reports CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan (video) in Cancun. "There are some awnings that have blown off, a lot of downed trees, a lot of downed power poles, a lot of debris in the streets, but we couldn't find any really significant structural damage."

Although Emily weakened to a Category 2 hurricane while crossing the peninsula, it was expected to gather strength again after hitting Gulf waters later Monday.

A hurricane watch was issued from Cabo Rojo, Mexico, to Baffin Bay, Texas. The brunt of the second landfall was forecast to hit northeast Mexico late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

"Emily will make landfall once again late Tuesday into early Wednesday over the northern sections of Mexico, about 100 miles or so south of Brownsville," says CBS News Meteorologist George Cullen. "The effects for southern Texas will be some heavy rain and squally winds."

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©MMV CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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