Hurricane Dean has emerged over the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico after crossing Mexico's Caribbean coast before dawn, and swirling across the Yucatan Peninsula.
The storm, which hit land as a Category Five, lost much of its power as it traveled overland but could regain power over the warm Gulf waters.
Its maximum sustained winds were down to 130km/h, which put it at category one, the lowest intensity on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
The US National Hurricane Center is forecasting that Dean will hit land again in central Mexico tomorrow afternoon.
The eye of the storm hit the Yucatan Peninsula, near Costa Maya, 65km northeast of Chetumal, this morning.
Tourist resorts like Playa del Carmen and Cancun, devastated by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, appear to have escaped major damage.
However, driving rain and winds have hit the beach resorts where thousands of tourists are sheltering from the hurricane
Mexico had evacuated resorts and oil rigs as the storm whipped up maximum sustained winds of 270km/h with higher gusts reported..
Troops and police are patrolling the area to enforce a curfew declared by the state government. 11 people have died so far in the path of the hurricane throughout the Caribbean.
The storm is expected to regain major hurricane status as it moves over the warm Gulf of Mexico on its way to a second landfall later in the week in northern Mexico.
Category Five hurricanes are rare but there were four in 2005, including Katrina that devastated New Orleans.
Mexican authorities have deployed about 1,000 police officers to prevent the type of looting that followed the devastation wrought by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, another Category Five hurricane that killed 10 people.
Wilma, the strongest Atlantic storm ever recorded, wrecked Cancun and other beach resorts and caused $2.6bn in damage.
