Central American mountains drain Felix of rain, power
Hurricane Felix sent thousands of people looking for shelter after it barreled ashore in Nicaragua on Tuesday, but it quickly lost some of its punch.
Felix made landfall around 7:45 a.m. ET as a Category 5 storm with top winds at 160 mph (260 km/h), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
By 2 p.m. ET, the storm's top sustained wind speed had dropped to 100 mph (155 km/h), making it a Category 2, the NHC said. Felix's rapid weakening is expected to continue as it makes its way across the mountainous terrain of Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.
In its 2 p.m. advisory, the hurricane center said Felix's center was about 75 miles (125 km) west-northwest of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, and was moving west at about 14 mph (22 km/h).
Felix's powerful winds tore the roofs off buildings in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, damaging the town's hospital and airport, according to Nicaraguan civil defense officials.
"We still don't know exactly how many dwellings have had their roofs torn off," Lt. Col. Rogelio Flores said. "There are damages in the airport in Puerto Cabezas. The wind lifted up part of the roof of the communications tower there."
So far, there have been no reports of fatalities, Flores said. Nicaraguan officials are trying to track down two boats carrying 35 fisherman that went missing off the coast during the storm, a government official told CNN.
The NHC warned that a "major flood threat looms" from the storm, which could dump more than 2 feet of rain in some areas.
Felix is the second Category 5 storm to hit the region this year, marking the first time two Category 5 storms have made landfall in a single hurricane season since the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began keeping records in 1886.
Hurricane Dean slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula two weeks ago.
A Category 5 storm -- the most extreme level on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity -- is capable of producing "potentially catastrophic" damage.
Nicaragua's Health Minister Maritza Cuan told CNN that she and about 50 patients rode out the storm in a hospital in Puerto Cabezas. She could see the strong wind bending trees as the storm moved ashore, damaging the rooftops of the hospital and homes in the community of 50,000 people.
The roof of one shelter was so badly damaged that the people had to be moved to the hospital, Cuan said.
Approximately 12,500 people in Nicaragua evacuated ahead of the hurricane, many of them riding out the storm in 72 shelters set up mostly in the north, said Flores, Nicaragua's No. 2 civil defense official.
It is too early to tally the total damage, but officials are concerned about the impact of the powerful storm on the impoverished region. Nearly 80 percent of Nicaraguans live below the poverty level, many residing in poorly-constructed homes.
There was no immediate word on what Felix did to prime real estate along the Honduran coast. The region is home to hotels and expensive vacation homes.
The heavy rain Tuesday is expected to result in massive flooding and mudslides, particularly in central Honduras.
Miles north of the landfall location, Honduras set up a staging area in La Ceiba, where international aid and rescue workers waited out the storm.
Honduras' Bay Islands -- Roatan, Utila and Guanaja -- were evacuated on Monday; 19 Americans were taken by helicopter to La Ceiba by the U.S. military's Southern Command, based in Miami, Florida.
However, some 14,000 Miskito Indians did not evacuate in time and rode out the storm in the isolated region along the Honduras-Nicaragua border.
Honduran government officials had scrambled Monday to try to find fuel for boats to evacuate the Miskito people but were unable to get to the remote region.
Felix's hurricane force winds had extended outward up to 45 miles (75 km) from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 115 miles (185 km), making it a relatively compact storm.
Felix is expected to dump between 8 and 12 inches of rain on northern Nicaragua and El Salvador, while most of Honduras will get soaked with up to 15 inches of rain.
In 1998, Central America was devastated by Hurricane Mitch, one of the deadliest-ever storms, which killed at least 10,000 people as it triggered landslides that swallowed villages.
Meanwhile, Hurricane Henriette formed in the Pacific Ocean early Tuesday, threatening western Mexico's Baja Peninsula as a Category 1 storm. It is expected to make landfall Tuesday afternoon.
source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/weather/0 ... index.html
