Ten Icelanders who had trouble with leaving the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico to escape Hurricane Dean will fly to New York today. From there they will fly to Iceland. No other Icelanders are believed to be in danger in Mexico.
Tens of thousands of tourists have escaped from the region during the last few days. Meteorologists believe Hurricane Dean will sweep the Yucatán peninsula at a speed of 260 km per hour today, Fréttabladid reports.
The Icelanders were on vacation in Playa del Carmen near Cancún on Yucatán. The Icelandic embassy in Washington DC contacted the Icelandic consul in Campeche in Mexico, Rafael Ruiz, on Sunday afternoon and asked him to help the Icelanders leave the area.
Ruiz ordered a bus which brought the Icelandic tourists to Campeche, where they stayed Sunday night. It had not been possible to find a flight for the tourists out of Campeche yesterday, Ruiz said, and therefore the bus drove them to Villahermosa.
In Villahermosa the Icelanders caught a flight to Mexico City, where they stayed last night. Today they are scheduled to leave with a plane to New York and from there to Iceland, where they should arrive later today.
Hurricane Dean has swept the islands in the eastern Caribbean in a speed of over 200 km per hour for the last few days, leaving a path of destruction. At lease nine people have been killed and hundreds have lost their homes.
