U.S. coast could get hit

MERIDA, Mexico -- Residents of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula began sweeping water out of their homes and repairing rooftops early Monday after Hurricane Isidore ripped up trees, knocked out power and left at least two people dead.\nIsidore was downgraded to a tropical storm as it dumped rain across the peninsula and battered the region with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. At 11:00 a.m. EDT, Isidore was 55 miles south of Merida and slowly drifting eastward.\nThe National Hurricane Center said the storm was expected to head west and back over the Gulf of Mexico, where it would likely regain strength and again become a hurricane on Tuesday. It could turn north--possibly toward the U.S. Gulf coast where it could hit this week. Residents of coastal Louisiana towns started heading north.\nIn Mexico, Yucatan Gov. Patricio Patron said that because of ravaged communications, officials had little immediate information about damage. He said the storm had caused at least two deaths, including one person who was electrocuted in Merida and another who was killed in a storm-related accident on a highway outside the capital.\nThe storm snapped trees and shattered windows in Merida, home to spectacular colonial buildings, delicate ecological reserves and majestic Mayan ruins that draw thousands of tourists every year. Telephone service was disrupted and roads were blocked.\n"This is a disaster. We don't have enough information, and we don't have enough communication," Patron told The Associated Press early Monday between meetings with disaster officials.\nLater, he toured the town of Motul, 20 miles northeast of Merida, where residents were starting to clean up under a light, steady rain.\n"Nothing is left," Maria Eleana Dizib said, gazing at her empty, concrete-block home, which like many others was flooded and roofless. "Everything flew away."\nAfter causing heavy flooding in western Cuba, Isidore ran along the Yucatan shore with 125 mph winds and fearsome waves on Sunday as officials tried to evacuate approximately 70,000 people from coastal communities.\nIt veered inland to the southwest Sunday afternoon. While its center barely avoided Merida, Yucatan's state capital with 800,000 residents, winds and sheets of rain shattered windows, downed trees and power lines and collapsed the balconies of elegant old houses. Almost all of Merida was left without power.\nClasses were canceled statewide so that schools could be used as temporary shelters. Nearly 150 miles east in the resort city of Cancun, rain and winds ruined beach vacations, but no major damage or injuries were reported.\nIn Merida, winds howled over toppled branches piling up in the main plaza as residents huddled in darkened homes, hotels and public buildings. The winds were strong enough to ring church bells throughout the city.\nThe state oil monopoly, Petroleos Mexicanos, evacuated more than 8,000 workers from drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving skeleton crews aboard.\nIsidore dumped 12 to 20 inches of rain on the sparsely populated northern coastline and caused havoc with phone and power services across the peninsula. In the coastal town of Progreso, coast guard officials said they received reports of destroyed homes.\nFar to the south, Nicaraguan officials said outer bands of rain associated with Isidore caused flooding that killed two people and forced the evacuation of others.\nAlso Monday, a tropical depression closed in on the Caribbean and was expected to become a tropical storm before crossing over the Lesser Antilles and later the Caribbean Sea, forecasters said.\n___\nOn the Net:\nNational Hurricane Center, http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/