Six people are now known to have died as Hurricane Wilma continues to pound Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for a second day.
Tens of thousands of people, many of them foreign tourists, have sought shelter in overcrowded conditions.
The storm has wiped out electricity supplies and flattened hundreds of homes in the Caribbean resort of Cancun.
The Mexican army is preparing to send food, water, medical kits and building materials to coastal areas and to the island of Cozumel, a popular resort that bore the brunt of of the storm.
Wilma, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, has been crawling slowly across Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, before finally heading out into the Gulf of Mexico.
The storm lost some of its punch over land and its winds dropped to around 160km/h, making it a Category Two hurricane.
80,000 residents have been ordered to leave the Florida Keys island ahead of the storm's arrival early tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Alpha has hit the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, threatening Haiti and the Dominican Republic with deadly flash floods and mudslides.
Alpha is the 22nd tropical storm of the Atlantic season, breaking a record set in 1933.
