Dean Dumps Heavy Rain Across Central Mexico

Published Aug 24, 2007 12:01 AM by The Maritime Executive

Hurricane Dean slammed into the Mexican mainland as a Category Two storm on Wednesday, after first striking the Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday. The first-named storm of the season had regained only some of its previous Category Five, 165 MPH, winds that made it one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes ever to make landfall. Still, the dangerous storm regained enough strength to dump heavy rain across central Mexico, before making its way inland. Dean was blamed for 20 casualties in the Caribbean, but no deaths have so far been reported in Mexico. Mexican authorities credited improved organization, precautions and response capabilities for the initial good news, but even as the National Hurricane Center in Miami downgraded Dean to a tropical depression late Wednesday, as many as 20 inches of rain was still expected. The prospect for severe flooding and/or mudslides remained omnipresent. American oil producers and refiners watched warily from the sidelines this week as Mexico suspended offshore oil production and shut down its only nuclear power plant in the path of the deadly storm. Initial reports from state-owned oil company PEMEX indicated that there was no known damage to any of its production facilities on shore or in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico’s oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico is home to at least 100 oil-production platforms and three major oil-exporting ports. Because most offshore production was shut down as a precaution, Mexico’s domestic crude oil production temporarily dipped by almost 3 million barrels per day. Further north, in Texas, waterlogged portions of central Texas breathed a sigh of relief as little or no rain from Dean's outermost bands materialized there. This was welcome news for areas of the state which were still saturated from rain dumped from Tropical Storm Erin. Dean and Erin, in close succession, reminded local residents and oil refiners alike that the 2007 hurricane season had finally emerged as a market force this week. Ahead of Dean, both crude and natural gas futures had edged higher.