Wilma killed at least eight people in Mexico, and the Caribbean braced for more trouble as Tropical Storm Alpha also gathered strength, becoming the 22nd storm of the Atlantic season -- a record number.

Looters were out on the streets of the resort at Cancun as Wilma headed out into the Gulf of Mexico leaving more than one meter (three feet) of floodwaters, which 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.

Wilma was picking up power and moving more rapidly along a northeasterly path toward the southern Florida peninsula, the US National Hurricane Center said.

At 2100 GMT, the center of the powerful storm was about 340 kilometers (210 miles) west-southwest of Florida's Key West chain of islands, the center said.

The hurricane was expected to hit the southwestern coast of the Florida peninsula early Monday. A category-two storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Wilma was traveling at about 22 kilometers (14 miles) per hour and was expected to gradually accelerate late Sunday and Monday.

Maximum sustained wind neared 165 kilometers (105 miles) per hour, with higher gusts.

"Wilma has a large and expanding wind field... and significant impacts will likely be felt well away from the center," the NHC said, noting tropical storm force winds would reach the Florida Keys and peninsula late Sunday.

Meanwhile, residents in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula emerged from more than 40 hours of howling winds, blinding rain, death and destruction.

Mexican President Vicente Fox was due to tour stricken towns later Sunday.

Looters took advantage of the chaos. Scores were out at dawn in Cancun and other tourist spots, raiding appliance stores for televisions, washing machines and other goods, and stealing liquor and clothes.

About 350 soldiers and 70 sailors were called out to reinforce security in the resort of Playa del Carmen, where the storm wiped out electricity and telephone lines, and destroyed more than 1,000 homes. "Playa is destroyed," said Moises Ramirez, the town's civil defense chief.

Wilma also inflicted heavy damage on a naval base on Cozumel, officials said.

Cozumel, famous among snorkelers and scuba divers, was devastated following the storm, with streets flooded, according to the interior ministry.

Elsewhere, Cuba, which had evacuated 637,000 people from coastal districts in Wilma's path, was squeezed by two major storms.

Wilma pounded eastern Cuba with heavy rain and high winds, while Tropical Storm Alpha hit its western flank.

Four people died in Cuba after a bus ferrying tourists away from areas threatened by the hurricane Wilma slipped off a wet road Friday, authorities said on Sunday.

In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush made a last-minute appeal for residents still in Wilma's path to evacuate and seek shelter.

"I cannot emphasize enough to the folks that live in the Florida Keys a hurricane is coming, and a hurricane is a hurricane and it has deadly force winds," Bush said at a news conference with Florida officials.

"Perhaps people are saying 'I'm going to hunker down' -- they shouldn't do that," he said.

Florida authorities on Saturday had ordered the evacuation of the keys' 80,000 residents. But despite appeals from the governor, many have ignored the call.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Alpha closed in on the island of Hispaniola, shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as the southeastern Bahamas, the NHC said.

At 2100 GMT, the center of the storm had maximum sustained winds near 55 kilometers (35 miles) per hour, the NHC said.

Alpha became the 22nd named storm of the season Saturday, breaking the all-time record for the most active season in the Atlantic basin.

The NHC does not use the letters X, Y or Z to name storms. This is the first time it has exhausted the Roman alphabet and has had to resort to the Greek one to name storms in the Atlantic basin.

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