By MARK STEVENSON
The Associated Press

TULUM, Mexico - Hurricane Dean headed for a collision course with Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Monday, forcing the state-run oil company to abandon its off’shore rigs, and sending tourists fleeing for the airports and locals searching for higher ground. The storm killed 10 people as it crossed the Caribbean.

Dean was already a powerful Category 4 storm as it raked the Cayman Islands. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it could grow into a monstrous Category 5 hurricane before slashing across the Yucatan Peninsula and emerging in the oil-rich Gulf of Campeche.

Mexico’s state oil company decided Monday to evacuate all 14,000 workers and shut down production on the offshore rigs that extract most of the nation’s oil.

While the storm’s center was expected to strike central Mexico, the outer bands of the storm were likely to bring rain and gusty winds to south Texas - already saturated after an unusually rainy summer. Texas officials were taking no changes - emergency operations centers opened, prison inmates were moved inland, and sandbags distributed.

The Mexican resort city of Cancun began evacuations and arranged for extra flights to help tens of thousands of tourists leave before Dean’s arrival. The hotel zone was quiet on Monday, nearly all guests gone.

read more HERE