Bill Karins, Meteorologist

One of the strongest hurricanes to ever move across the Caribbean made landfall at 4:30 EDT this morning just to the Northeast of Chetumal, Mexico. Our NBC News crews are driving around the region trying to find out just how much damage the storm did. The early report is that the city of Chetumal has serious but fixable damage. Chetumal was 25 miles due south of the eye of Dean so they didn’t experience the 165 mph hour winds. I’d estimate that the highest winds in Chetumal were around 110 mph. No reports have come in yet from any location just north of the eye’s path where the devastation is expected to be severe. Luckily this is a sparsely populated region of Mexico that was completely evacuated. Even so, I’m sure the pictures will be incredible.

Here’s what’s left for Dean before he dies over the mountains of Mexico:

=

3pm - Dean heads into the Southern Gulf of Mexico as a Cat 1

11pm - Dean begins to re-intensify but not enough time to become major hurricane again

5am Wednesday – Dean should peak at Cat 2 strength around 100 mph

8am Wednesday – Dean makes last landfall just North of Veracruz, Mexico with minor wind damage and flash flooding.

5pm Wednesday – Dean quickly dies over the mountains of Central Mexico. Flash flooding and mudslides will continue to be life threatening throughout the night.