Hurricane Ernesto came ashore on Mexico's Caribbean coast near the border with Belize late Tuesday, after hundreds of tourists left beach resorts and fishermen abandoned low-lying villages to avoid the threat of damaging rain and wind. Ernesto had sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph).

Though hurricane season officially began June 1, activity in the tropics heated up ahead of schedule this year with Tropical Storm Alberta forming off South Carolina in late May, followed by Tropical Storm Beryl, which was the strongest pre-season storm to make landfall in history when it came ashore in Jacksonville, Fla.

NOAA offers some good news for cruisers: conditions in the atmosphere and the ocean favor a near-normal hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin this season, NOAA's Hurricane Research Division reports. NOAA’s outlook predicts a less active season compared to recent years.

Tourists are getting out of Cancun and other Mexican resorts ahead of Hurricane Rina. One tourism official estimates that 10,000 tourists have left Mexico's most popular tourist destinations. Lines snaked from ticket counters in Cancun's crowded airport yesterday as jumbo airliners heading to Canada and Europe waited.

As Hurricane Rina continues to strengthen and a hurricane warning was issued for part of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Carnival Cruise Line changed itineraries for eight ships and Celebrity Cruises changed the itinerary for Celebrity Millennium.

Tropical Storm Maria is impacting the itinerary of Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Gem. The ship, which departed from New York on Sunday, will avoid the path of the storm by sailing to the Bahamas and Florida instead of Bermuda.