Hurricane Emily turned the white-sand beaches, emerald surf and five-star hotels of Mexico's Mayan Riviera into a rainsoaked, wind-damaged strip of coastline, stranding thousands of tourists and leaving many local residents homeless.

Tourists who spent the night in makeshift shelters emerged Monday to find hotels struggling to provide services and most restaurants and shops closed. Many went to the Cancun airport, which reopened Monday, to try to find flights home.

''All night long, cold water was pouring in through the holes in the wall,'' said Graham Brighton, of Leicester, England, one of about 1,000 people who spent the night on a gymnasium floor in Cancun. ''There were just far too many people crammed into one space.''

There were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries on the peninsula.

As residents of Yucatan Peninsula resorts, including Playa del Carmen and Tulum, began wading through knee-deep floodwaters to assess damage under a light drizzle, the storm barreled west, out into the Gulf of Mexico.

Emily was expected to regain strength before slamming into Mexico's northeast coastline or southern Texas as early as tonight. Residents there boarded up windows and evacuated low-lying areas in anticipation of the storm.

Mexico's state-run oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, evacuated 15,000 oil workers from Gulf rigs in the storm's path.

Damage from the hurricane was evident everywhere on the eastern Yucatan's Mayan Riviera.

Power was knocked out all along the coast. The wind ripped roofs off luxury hotels, and snapped concrete utility poles in two along a half-mile stretch of highway between Playa del Carmen and the famous resort of Cancun to the north. Plate glass windows were shattered on the ground floors of numerous businesses in Playa del Carmen.

The worst damage was in Puerto Aventuras, 60 miles south of Cancun, and in nearby Tulum, a collection of thatched hut hotels along a secluded strip of beach that is popular with backpackers. The storm's eye came ashore there.

Officials reported little damage to the ancient pyramids in Tulum or elsewhere, but a special team of archaeologists was to inspect sites throughout Quintana Roo state.

Tulum's streets were deserted Monday and the village was without electricity, according to officials reached by telephone.

Sitting in the roofless, rainsoaked lobby of the Copacabana Hotel near Puerto Aventuras, Samuel Norrod, of Livingston, Tenn., waited to hear if his travel agent could get flights home for himself, his wife and his 13-year-old granddaughter.

They rode out the storm in the hotel's ballroom.

''We could hear the windows smashing out. The wind would get loud, and then it would get soft again. And then, for about 25 minutes, it got real still,'' Norrod said, describing the calm eye of the hurricane.

Nearby, Remigio Kamul, 21, surveyed the remains of his family's collection of five shacks. Only a brick room remained standing.

''We just want to have a roof over our heads again,'' he said.

The large family crowded into the brick room during the storm.

''The children were crying,'' said Kamul's mother, 46-year-old Maria Concepciona. ''We were hugging each other. The door was banging in the wind.''

All hotels in Quintana Roo state not severely damaged were expected to reopen their doors again in the afternoon, officials from the state's hotel association said.

About 60,000 tourists were evacuated from Cancun, Tulum, Playa de Carmen and Cozumel, an island just south of Cancun famous for its diving. Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal said the island's mayor reported some minor damage.

Emily's wind speeds had soared to as much as 135 mph, making it a fierce Category 4 storm when it hit the Yucatan. It weakened to Category 2 as it passed over the peninsula early Monday.

Trouble in paradise

l Stranded on the beach: Hurricane Emily stranded thousands of tourists in Yucatan Peninsula resorts and left hundreds of local residents homeless.

l Wavering winds: The storm weakened as it crossed cooler waters north of the peninsula, but was expected to regain strength and threaten Mexican oil rigs before slamming into northeast Mexico or southern Texas as early as tonight.

l Damage done: The worst damage on the Yucatan Peninsula was in Puerto Aventuras, where the eye came ashore some 60 miles south of Cancun and in Tulum, a series of hotels popular with backpackers.