FELIPE CARRILLO PUERTO, MEXICO — Nature, good luck and good planning all combined Tuesday to deliver what the people of the Yucatan Peninsula called a miracle.
Hurricane Dean, packing 165-mph winds, was a Category 5 storm when it made landfall near this town of 20,000 people early Tuesday. And it remained a "monster" as it crossed the peninsula, causing widespread destruction.
But there appeared to be few injuries. And as of late Tuesday, no deaths had been reported, despite the fierce winds that caused heavy damage to more than one-third of the buildings in some seaside communities.
"They've made an effort here to spread the idea of being prepared," said Abel Posadas, part of a team of Red Cross workers who had driven 1,000 miles from Mexico City to Felipe Carrillo Puerto in the days before the hurricane struck.
"Everyone just stays calm and gets ready."
About 1,500 families saw their homes destroyed or heavily damaged in Quintana Roo state, which includes Felipe Carrillo Puerto and resorts such as Cancun, officials said.
Many of those rendered homeless are the state's poorest residents, including hundreds of Maya Indians.
Humberto Sosa, 35, a Maya-speaking resident of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, was one of those who lost his home. Like many in the region, it was a flimsy structure of cardboard and tin sheets.
"When those tin sheets start flying, they're really dangerous because they're sharp," he said. "You have to get away." He escaped injury by seeking refuge in a city shelter.
In previous years, Sosa and other poor residents of the region were more likely to try to ride out the storm. There were reports of residents of Maya communities ignoring evacuation orders for this storm also, and officials said it would take days to learn the fate of the most isolated areas.
But with the memory still fresh of 2005's Hurricane Wilma, which caused widespread destruction in Cancun, officials had redoubled their education efforts.
"We've spent days talking to our Mayan brothers, telling them to come to the shelters in the city," said Fernando Montalvo Rodriguez, a government official in the region. Many live in remote communities where Spanish is a second language.
"We told them to think of the trip here as a vacation," he added.
Similar preparations were made in Cancun and other coastal cities and towns that attract high numbers of tourists.
