For any copyright, please send me a message. More than 40,000 tourists hunkered down in emergency shelters this morning as 120mph Hurricane Delta smashed into the Mexican tourist resort of Cancun.Despite weakening to a Category 3 storm, authorities reported winds and rain battering the shore which threatening to bring a storm surge that could raise water levels nine to 13ft, along with large and dangerous waves and flash flooding inland.Quintana Roo Gov. Carlos Joaquin said the state government had prepared, but warned residents and tourists that 'it is a strong, powerful hurricane,' though he considered it a good sign that Delta had weakened a bit late Tuesday. He said the area hadn't seen a storm like it since Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Delta was centered about 80 miles from Cozumel early Wednesday and moving west-northwest at 16mph.Thousands of Quintana Roo residents and tourists waited for the storm hunkered down in dozens of government shelters. Everyone was ordered off the streets by 7pm.Since Monday, local residents have formed long lines at supermarkets and hardware stores to load up on food and supplies to protect their homes, television images showed Ventusky Privacy Policy Panic buying left some shelves empty of basic pantry goods, said Marian Castro, who lives in Cancun's hotel zone and recalls the destruction wrought by Category 5 Hurricane Wilma in 2005.'I'm not scared, because after Hurricane Wilma ... destroyed my house, this time we're more prepared,' she said, pointing out her anti-cyclone windows. Throughout Tuesday the evacuations of low lying areas, islands and the coastline expanded as Delta exploded over warm Caribbean waters into a major hurricane. Much of Cancun's hotel zone was cleared out as guests were bused to inland shelters. In Cancun alone, the government opened 160 shelters. More than 40,000 tourists in Cancun and neighboring resorts were evacuated, the head of the area's hotel association, Roberto Citron, told AFP. Some 300 guests and nearly 200 staff from the Fiesta Americana Condesa hotel were taken to the Technological Institute of Cancun campus. All wearing masks, they spread out on thin mattresses in a classroom building and tried to get comfortable as workers boarded the building's windows in a light rain.Some played cards or watched videos on their phones, while others called relatives.'The hotel has done a good job of making sure that we were provided for and that we're going to be safe here in this place, so we don't have any concerns at all,' said Shawn Sims, a tourist from Dallas sheltering with his wife, Rashonda Cooper, and their sons, 7-year-old Liam and 4-year-old Easton.'This is my first (hurricane) experience, but I see that these guys have a plan and they kno