Hurricane Ivan flexed its muscles off Mexico's Caribbean coast on Monday bringing heavy rains and choppy seas that sent thousands of residents and tourists fleeing beach resorts and kept ferries in dock.
Emergency services had evacuated more than 10,000 tourists and residents from low-lying areas near Cancun, famed for its white beaches, turquoise waters and night life.
"Stormy winds of up to 40 kilometers per hour (25 mph) have just begun to appear in Cozumel, Isla Mujeres and Cancun. The sea has started to bite and it is now not navigable," said Jose Nemesio Medina, head of civil protection in Quintana Roo state.
A rare Category 5 hurricane, it was set to hit the western edge of Cuba on Monday evening, brushing past the Mexican tourist resorts as it squeezes northward through the Yucatan Channel separating Mexico and the island.
At 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), the storm was located about 70 miles (110 km) south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba.
Ivan was moving toward the northwest at nearly eight mph (13 kph). The US National Hurricane Center forecast this general motion would continue for the next 24 hours.
On its forecast track, the Hurricane Center said the storm could hit the United States anywhere from eastern Louisiana to the Gulf Coast of Florida with landfall likely on the western Florida Panhandle early Thursday morning
