It’s odd - I almost would rather this storm just track through the channel and hit Texas south of Kingsville (not as a Cat 4-5 though). If it hits Mexico, it is sure to kill many more people. We can handle the storm in the US far better. But - Dean’s gonna go where Dean’s gonna go. This looks like another Mitch in the making, or maybe even Emily.
Mitch was substantially further south than Dean, bypassing the Yucatan Peninsula until took out much of Honduras and Nicaragua, dumping rain and causing massive mudslides in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala too.