Position: 19.6N 85.5W [10:00PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [275°] near 16 mph [26 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 115 mph [185 kph].
Wind Gusts: 125 mph [200 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 140 miles (220 km).
Hurricane Wind Radius: 30 miles [ 45 km].
Minimum central pressure: 964 mb ↓.

Currently about 135 miles [ 220 km] East-Southeast of Tulum, Mexico.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico from Puerto Costa Maya to Cancun, including Cozumel.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico south of Puerto Costa Maya to Chetumal; the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico north of Cancun to Campeche.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico south of Puerto Costa Maya to Chetumal; the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico north of Cancun to Cabo Catoche.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the coast of Belize from south of Chetumal to Belize City.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…

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