Much-feared Hurricane Wilma has started to make landfall on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, where tens of thousands of people have moved to safety.
The centre of the powerful Category Four storm is moving slowly towards the
north-east of the peninsula where it is expected to linger for several hours.
Heavy rains and mudslides triggered by Wilma have killed at least 13 people in the Caribbean, mostly in Haiti.
The hurricane is expected to hit Florida late on Sunday.
According to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, the Mexican resort island
of Cozumel has been hit by the storm's outer eyewall - a fast-moving section
around the eye.
There and in Cancun, power was knocked out and waves flooded the deserted
streets.
Mexican President Vicente Fox has urged people to remain in shelters.
"The most important thing now... is to protect lives," he said in
a televised speech.
With local airports now closed, tens of thousands of tourists in the area have been ordered inland, or to take cover from sustained winds of close to 150mph (240km/h) in gymnasiums and schools.
One shelter reportedly flooded overnight and some 300 people had to be relocated.
The BBC's Claire Marshall, in Cancun, says holidaymakers are abandoning the resort, which is built along a narrow spit of white sand that could be vulnerable to the predicted 10ft (3m) storm surge of sea water.
Five cities along the Mexican coast have declared a state of emergency and set up hundreds of shelters.
The hurricane has also been causing heavy wind and rain in Cuba, where more
than 300,000 people have been ordered out of western areas.
2005 has been one of the most destructive hurricane seasons on record. Wilma
is the 12th of the year - a figure equalled only in 1969 since record-keeping
began in 1851.
By one measure, Wilma was the strongest ever, with the lowest barometric pressure on record in the Atlantic basin.
It has since dropped in strength from category five to four, but the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned it was expected to regain strength soon.
In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency, although mandatory evacuations for residents of the Florida Keys island chain were put back, as Wilma's slow groundspeed meant it might not arrive till next week.
Belize and Honduras are on tropical storm watch.
Thousands of people have died in Central America this month from landslides
and floods following torrential rains brought by Hurricane Stan.
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