Tourists flee Mexico Caribbean from Hurricane Dean

By Jose Cortazar

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Thousands of frightened tourists lined up for hours to flee Mexico's Caribbean resorts on Sunday as Hurricane Dean threatened to become the second powerful hurricane to thrash the coastline since 2005.

Vacationers slept in Cancun airport overnight and anxious families waited on stand-by for flights home as shop owners and residents in nearby sun-kissed islands frantically boarded up windows and hotels moved guests to shelters.

The hurricane could yet strengthen into a rare and potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm when it pounds the area on Monday or Tuesday as forecast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

"I came to Cancun to get married ... I hope I can come back to finish my honeymoon," said newlywed Raymond Steves, 27, from Naples, Florida, alongside wife Ingrid on their way home early at Cancun airport.

Mexico aimed to evacuate 26,000 tourists on Sunday after sending 23,000 people home on Saturday.

Dean bore down on Jamaica on Sunday and people in the island's low-lying areas were urged to find shelter. The storm killed five people on its path through the Caribbean.

Home to soft white beaches and turquoise waters, Mexico's "Mayan Riviera" of Caribbean resorts like Cancun and Playa del Carmen has not fully recovered from the devastating Hurricane Wilma which struck in October 2005 and killed at least seven people.

Wilma howled over the area two days, sucking away entire beaches, stranding tens of thousands of tourists and causing $2.6 billion in damages.