The hurricane, at Category 5 when it hit land in Mexico earlier in the day, has killed at least 11 people in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Martinique and the Cayman Islands in the past few days.
A spokesman for the Miami-based Hurricane Center, Dennis Feltgen, said Dean would continue to lose its power as it moves along Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, which separates the Caribbean from the Mexican Gulf. The spokesman said the hurricane posed no threat to U.S. shores.
Hurricane Dean, similar in size to the U.S. state of Texas, ripped up power lines and damaged buildings along Mexico's Caribbean coast to the north of Chetumal, leaving the city of 150,000 without electricity. Around 13,000 tourists out of 20,000 have been evacuated from the area.
The Mexican government has deployed 4,000 troops to help with relief efforts in the south-eastern Campeche region, where a state of emergency has been declared.
Four hurricanes of Category 5 occurred in 2005, including Katrina, which caused a catastrophic levee failure that flooded New Orleans in August 2005. In terms of atmospheric pressure, Dean is the third most powerful hurricane in the Atlantic since records began.
The high frequency of hurricanes and other extreme weather events in recent years are seen by most scientists as a result of man-made climate change.
