Hurricane Wilma pounds Mexican resorts, killing three

Residents battle strong winds and rain on a flooded street after Hurricane Wilma hit Playa del Carmen in Mexico's Caribbean state of Quintana Roo. Picture / Reuters

CANCUN, Mexico - Hurricane Wilma blasted through Mexico's Caribbean resorts, smashing homes and killing three people in a slow-moving rampage that put it on course to hit Florida next.

Howling hurricane winds tore off roofs and uprooted trees for a third day running across the Yucatan peninsula. Thousands of glum tourists faced another night in sweltering shelters with no light or running water, eating food rations.

The long spit of white sand that draws planeloads of sun seekers to Cancun was under water. Luxury hotels were flooded up to knee-level and littered with debris after the normally tranquil sea roared inland.

As the rains and winds eased a little on Saturday evening, tourists and locals ventured out in search of food and some took advantage of the chaos to loot.

Dozens waded out of smashed stores with plasma TVs, fridges and bundles of clothes on hangers. Police fired shots into the water to try and scatter them.

"It's a complete disaster. The city is totally destroyed," said restaurant worker Pablo Resendiz, picking his way through flooded streets that were cut off to cars by tangles of fallen power cables and other debris.

Rescue workers paddled to flooded neighborhoods and plucked families from houses where the muddy water was chest-high.

In one area, locals had spent a terrifying night, afraid that crocodiles from a nearby swamp would swim in with the water rushing into their homes.

"It was a hellish nightmare. We thought the water was going to reach the second floor," said lawyer Oscar Trevino as his wife and four children were helped to safety.

In a nearby house, a 4-year-old girl sat shivering and hungry on a soggy mattress perched on a kitchen counter and table where her bedraggled family spent the night.

Wilma had calmed down by evening to a Category 2 hurricane on the five-stage Saffir-Simpson scale, but winds were still at 160kph with higher gusts. It was expected to move into the Gulf of Mexico during the night.

The Yucatan peninsula, famous for its turquoise seas, white sand and Mayan ruins, has been lashed by Wilma since Thursday.