Hurricane Emily is now a very strong Category 4 and barreling towards Mexico. It'll be a long night in Cancun.
Two people also were killed in a helicopter crash on the Gulf of Mexico as more than 15,500 workers were evacuated from offshore oil platforms.The Category 4 storm, which pounded Jamaica's southern coast, then made a jag to the south that spared the Cayman Islands before it set course for Mexico, was expected to land near Cancun Sunday night or early Monday.
Emily was likely to make landfall again on Wednesday anywhere from northeastern Mexico to southern Texas, Jack Beven, the hurricane specialist at the Miami-based center said, but cautioned it was too early to make a precise prediction.
State oil company Pemex was removing the last few hundred workers from oil platforms on the Gulf of Mexico. Strong winds downed a helicopter participating in the evacuation on Saturday night, killing a pilot and co-pilot, the company said.
The platform evacuations closed 63 wells and halting the production of 480,000 barrels of oil per day.
Related links:
National Hurricane Center
HurricaneTrack.com