Half-compartment of the world, Cancun undoubtedly lived, Friday, the longest day of its existence. Announced for a few days, the cyclone most powerful Wilma ­ ever indexed in the Atlantic ­ has taken its time before touching celebrates it Mexican seaside resort and the Caribbean coast of Yucatan, progressing at a speed of approximately 7 kilometers per hour by moving gusts with 285 km/h. Closed airport, cut telephone and electricity, the city did not answer any more. "a slow cyclone implies more risks of damage than a cyclone which moves quickly, explained Friday the Mexican meteorologist Jesus Carachure. It remains longer at the same place, pouring a quantity of higher rain, and the wind longer subjects constructions to hard test."

In the flooded and deserted streets ­ the inhabitants had order since the day before to remain cloîtrés on their premises ­, of the palm trees lay, torn off by the violence of the wind; and, on the sea front, of the waves from 3 to 5 meters broke on the hotels, swallowing white sand the beaches on which, a few days earlier, the tourists folâtraient.

Thousands from abroad could embark on board special flights the Thursday, least lucky having been gathered in schools, gymnasia or hotels located inside the grounds. In one of these improvised refuges, an animated Mexican of a strong direction of the trade, tried to sell to the disaster victims a tee-shirt carrying the inscription: "I survived the Wilma cyclone."

But much undoubtedly were not likely to find shelter in time in buildings of fortune and the worst was to be feared in the most disinherited corners area where the dwellings do not have the robustness necessary to resist the gusts. Wilma already caused landslides which made ten died in Haiti. After the peninsula of Yucatan, it must approach Cuba before turning to Florida, Monday. It could then pass from category 4 to the 3, even the 2.

Friday evening, the cuban authorities had already carried out the evacuation of 220 000 people and the inhabitants of Florida started to constitute oil and water reserves. If the plantations of orange trees of Florida are likely to suffer, Wilma should in theory save the installations of hydrocarbons of the Gulf of Mexico ­ which hardly recover from the passage devastator of the cyclones Katrina and Rita at the end of the summer ­, which undoubtedly explains partly why the courses of oil enclosed yesterday in light fold.