On Wednesday, Hurricane Dean crashed into Mexico for the second time in two days, lashing tourist and fishing towns along a 60-mile-wide swath of the state of Veracruz with top sustained winds of 100 miles per hour.

Dean's first landfall in Mexico came Tuesday as a Category 5 storm boasting 165 mph winds - the third most intense hurricane to hit land in the Atlantic in recorded history. 

However, Pemex reported that no major damage had occurred to its offshore oil platforms or loading facilities.  Also, no deaths directly attributed to the storm had been reported. 

Gary Bourgeault at ManagersRealm discusses the impact Hurricane Dean had on the Mexican oil industry:

Dean traveled across the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico, where there are about 100 oil platforms stationed, three key Mexican oil-exporting ports and Mexico's best oil field: the Cantarell. All offshore production was stopped before the storm hit. As a result, the industry will lose about 2.7 million barrels of oil a day and 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

Aaron Smith at GrowYourFunds explains why the hurricane has made relatively little impact on the United States and shares advice for investors interested in timing buying or selling decisions based on natural disasters:

The lesson from this storm is that while a trade may appear to be a great move and sure thing at the time, a hurricane [can] turn at any time, so staying on top of the latest developments is a must for investors.

Time will tell whether Hurricane Dean will impact gas prices in the U.S.  The effect will likely be minimal at most, but things could have been much worse had Dean tracked further to the north and made its way through U.S. oil platforms or landed in or near areas damaged by hurricanes in recent years such as 2005's monster Hurricane Katrina.