CHETUMAL, Mexico — Hurricane Dean hammered Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula with blistering winds and heavy rain on Tuesday, missing the prime tourist spots of the Mayan Riviera but causing damage in Chetumal, the state capital, before being downgraded to Category 1 from Category 5.
Roofs were ripped off homes, streets were flooded, power lines were downed and trees were snapped in two as Hurricane Dean, the most powerful Atlantic storm to hit land since 1988, with winds in excess of 165 mph, passed overhead.
Although the storm crossed the Yucatan Peninsula by midafternoon, the threat was far from over for Mexico. Hurricane Dean was in the southern waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where Mexico's vast offshore oil fields produce most of its petroleum.
Much of the storm's path was over largely uninhabited areas, so despite its early strength, no deaths were reported. But it was still soon to tell if the storm had damaged the region's wildlife preserves. The Yucatan's mangroves, coral reefs and rain forests make it among the world's most biologically diverse regions.
"There will be damage to the ecosystem, of course, but conditions make it impossible for us to have any data yet," said Jose Solis, of the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas.
Officials planned to fly over the peninsula on Wednesday for initial assessment.
Early reports showed that the Mayan ruins along the eastern coast were not damaged, said Guillermina Escoto, a spokeswoman for the National Institute of Archaeology and History.
On the road from Felipe Carrillo Puerto, a small town 100 miles north of Chetumal where the storm had been predicted to come ashore, uprooted trees blocked traffic until federal police officers cleared the way with chain saws. In towns along the way, people were salvaging whatever they could from ravaged homes and stores, lugging items over sodden roads. In Los Limones, a sports center had been crumpled like a piece of paper.
In Pedro Santos, about 45 miles north of Chetumal, Jacobo Reyes, 32, a grocer, stared at the concrete block walls of his store, which was missing its tin roof. "We thought it would stand up pretty well, but it wasn't the case," he said.
His mother, Carmen Bustillos, 54, said she could not stand living in a hurricane alley. "I think now we should rebuild in a new place, start all over again," she said.
Chetumal clearly took the brunt of the hurricane's blow to the Yucatan. Streets were inundated and debris was everywhere. Hundreds of trees lay strewn along major thoroughfares, and thousands of people were without power and running water. But with no deaths reported, city officials said that they were relieved.
It appeared that the storm, although brutal, would not cause the devastation of Hurricane Wilma, which washed away whole beaches in Cancun in 2005, killing seven people and causing damage exceeding $2 billion.
"If it had come through Cancun, we would be talking about a different level of damage," Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said by telephone.
Chetumal, the capital of Quintana Roo State and a major center for trade with neighboring Belize, has a long history of hurricane damage. Two hurricanes in the 1940s wiped it out. In 1955, a storm devastated it. Each time, the city rebuilt, using more concrete to buttress itself against the wind.
The Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, left a meeting in Quebec with the leaders of Canada and the United States and arrived here Tuesday evening to see the extent of the damage. President Bush expressed support for him and said, "U.S. agencies are in close touch with the proper Mexican authorities, and if you so desire help, we stand ready to help."
The damage extended across the border to Belize, where a curfew was ordered in the north and residents scattered to the safety of shelters.
"We live near a swamp, and the crocodiles come out," Chyla Gill told Reuters. She and her family had fled her wooden house in Belize City for a more fortified school building.
The eye of the hurricane made landfall around 4:30 a.m. near the tourist resort of Majahual, about 40 miles northeast of Chetumal, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
On Tuesday morning in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, the wind howled and power failed after the overnight deluge.
As the sky became lighter, winds bent trees, tore corrugated iron roofs and knocked down signs. The streets were filled with water and littered with palm fronds and other debris. Overhead, clouds slid rapidly west.
The town's police chief, Abraham Oliva, said that the eye of the hurricane had passed through Laguna Guerrero, about 19 miles north of Chetumal.
In the center of the old town, people peered timidly from their windows to assess the night's damage. Alvaro Sosa Marvil, a veterinarian who lives in the town square, said he was relieved to find at dawn that the destruction was not as bad as had been predicted.
"This is a price one pays for living in a privileged place — the Caribbean," he said, as he looked at the downed trees in the town square. "Nature collects a toll from us."