By Associated Press
Gulf of Mexico – Hours after crashing into Mexico's Caribbean coast, Hurricane Dean has weakened a bit, to Category 3. Top sustained winds are 125 miles per hour.
Dean was a Category 5 hurricane with winds near 165 miles per hour when it came ashore about 40 miles east-northeast of Chetumal (chay-too-MAHL'). It knocked out power in the city, toppled trees and sent sheet metal flying through the air.
Dean made landfall in a sparsely populated coastline that had already been evacuated and it skirted most of the major tourist resorts.
Only three Category 5 storms, capable of catastrophic damage, have hit the U.S. since 1935. Dean is the first Category 5 to make landfall in the Atlantic region since Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida in 1992.