Hurricane Emily Avoids U.S.; Disrupts Some Gulf Oil Operations

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urricane Emily, continuing a westward track across the southern Caribbean, slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula early Monday as it headed back toward open water, but was unlikely to hit the mainland United States, weather reports said.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Emily made landfall near Cancun, Mexico, as a Category 4 storm, the second strongest level behind a Category 5, with winds of 135 miles per hour.

Some oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico were disrupted, the Associated Press reported, with platform evacuations in Mexican oil operations in the Gulf closing 63 wells and halting production of 480,000 barrels of oil per day.

James Day, chairman and chief executive officer of Noble Corp., an oil-drilling company, told CNBC Monday the company had evacuated eight oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and estimated workers would return to them in three days.

The storm could intensify over open water in the southern Gulf and was on a track to make landfall in northeastern Mexico near the Texas border late Tuesday or early Wednesday, AP said.