CANCUN, Mexico - Hurricane Delta emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday and headed toward Louisiana after making landfall just south of the Mexican resort of Cancun, toppling trees and cutting power to residents of the Yucatán Peninsula’s resort-studded coast.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Delta weakened to a Category 1 storm during the afternoon, but it began strengthening again while moving over the southern Gulf, rising to maximum sustained winds of 90 mph Wednesday night. It was expected to gain even more strength before reaching the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Delta could make landfall, possibly as a Category 3 storm, sometime Friday south of Morgan City, Louisiana, the forecast said. On Wednesday evening, the storm was centered about 525 miles south-southeast of Cameron, Louisiana, and heading west-northwest at 17 mph.

The hurricane came ashore in Mexico around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday with top winds of 110 mph. Officials said it caused no deaths or injuries, but did force hundreds of tourists to take refuge in storm shelters. It knocked out power to about 266,000 customers, or about one-third of the total on the Yucatán Peninsula.

“Fortunately, the most dangerous part of the hurricane has passed,” Carlos Joaquín González, the governor of the state of Quintana Roo, said, noting the big problem was downed trees that had knocked out power lines and blocked roadways.

Civil defense official Luís Alberto Ortega Vázquez said that as the storm approached about 39,000 people were evacuated in the states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán. He said about 2,700 people took refuge in storm shelters in the two states.

Joaquín González said Wednesday that most of the tourists had returned to their hotels but a shelter had been opened to accommodate people stranded in Cancun by the cancellation of 157 airline flights. He said the international airport would resume its normal operations Thursday.

There were reports of some flooding in Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. More than a thousand trees were knocked down by strong winds, but authorities expressed confidence that electricity would be restored to 80% of those affected Wednesday night.

Early Wednesday, guests of the Fiesta Americana Condesa hotel awoke in the sweltering classrooms of the Technological Institute of Cancun campus where they had been moved Tuesday.

All of the windows at the campus had been covered with plywood so they couldn’t see what was happening, but they said the howling winds started around 2 a.m. and there had been heavy rain.

By early afternoon they were returned to their hotel and the state announced that businesses could reopen at 3 p.m. and the ban on alcohol sales was lifted.

Evacuations of low-lying areas, islands and the shore expanded as Delta exploded over the warm Caribbean waters. Much of Cancun’s hotel zone was cleared out as guests were bused to inland shelters.

In Cancun alone, the government opened 160 shelters.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Delta was expected to make landfall there Friday night or Saturday morning and the entire state is in the storm’s possible path.

State and local officials in coastal areas were shoring up levees, sandbagging and taking other protections measures, he said.

Louisiana is still recovering from Hurricane Laura, which ravaged the southwestern region as it roared ashore as a Category 4 storm in August. More than 6,600 Laura evacuees remain in hotels around the state, mainly in New Orleans, because their homes are too heavily damaged to return.