Reinvigorated after a deadly strike on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, Hurricane Wilma roared on Sunday toward Florida where storm-weary US officials ordered widespread evacuations.
Wilma killed at least eight people in Mexican tourist resorts, and the Caribbean braced for more trouble as Tropical Storm Alpha also gathered strength, having become the record 22nd storm of the Atlantic season.
Looters were out on the streets of the resort of Cancun after Wilma headed out into the Gulf of Mexico leaving more than one metre (three feet) of floods that stopped police preventing thefts.
Four bodies were found on the island of Cozumel, where there has been three days of torrential rain and roofs were ripped off many buildings.
The governor of Quintana Roo state said two people died in Playa del Carmen, one in Cancun and a fourth in Yucatan state crushed by a tree. Two fishermen were also missing at sea.
More than 71,000 people, many of them foreign tourists, remained in emergency shelters for a third day, unable to leave because of the floods and damage.
Despite lingering winds, scores of looters were out at dawn in Cancun, raiding electrical stores for televisions, washing machines and other goods. They also targeted book stores and clothing chains where only the plastic mannequins were left.
About 250 federal police reinforcements were expected in the region on Sunday. President Vicente Fox was also to tour stricken towns.
Floodwaters at one stage reached eight meters (26 feet) - the third story of some hotels - in Cancun on Saturday.
The storm wiped out electricity and telephone lines, and destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Playa del Carmen. "Playa is destroyed," said Moises Ramirez, the town's civil defence chief.
Wilma also inflicted widespread damage on a naval base on Cozumel, officials said.
Cozumel, famous among skin and scuba divers, lay devastated following the storm, with streets flooded, according to the interior ministry.