Felix Kills in
Nicaragua, Spares
Honduras
Hurricane Felix killed
at least thirty eight
people and damaged
thousands of homes as it
passed through
Nicaragua. But the storm
failed to produce the
major flooding that many
feared in neighboring
Honduras, officials said
yesterday.
Little more than a day
after it came ashore as
a Category 5 hurricane,
Felix was downgraded to
a tropical depression.
In the Honduran capital,
Tegucigalpa, where
300,000 people were
evacuated from low-lying
neighborhoods, the rain
stopped and life
returned to normal.
On Mexico's Baja
California peninsula,
where a second hurricane
struck less than nine
hours after Felix,
officials were breathing
a sigh of relief. The
eye of Hurricane
Henriette made landfall
as a Category 1
hurricane just six miles
from San Jose del Cabo,
but damage to the
region's tourist
industry was minimal,
officials said.
Felix produced its most
severe damage in the
Nicaraguan coastal town
of Puerto Cabezas, where
it struck with 260 kph
winds. Roughly 90
percent of the
structures were damaged,
officials said,
including the town pier.
Nicaraguan news reports
said more than three
dozen residents of the
community of Barra Sandy
Bay were missing and
that the death toll
could increase.
The homes of about
30,000 people in the
Mesquite coast region of
eastern Nicaragua were
damaged or destroyed,
disaster officials said.
Because the region is
separated from the rest
of the country by dense
jungle, relief supplies
will have to be flown in
or transported by sea.
But the thousands of
deaths feared by many
who recalled the
ravaging of the Central
American isthmus by
Hurricane Mitch in 1989
did not materialize.
"The situation is
grave," said Nicaraguan
President Daniel Ortega.
"But thanks to God, the
number of victims ...
wasn't of the magnitude
of Mitch."
Honduran Defense
Minister Aristides Mejia
said good preparation
had helped keep injuries
to a minimum.
"Because of the
experience of Mitch,
people took many
precautions," Mejia
said. "People evacuated
with time to spare."
Honduran authorities
said a "red alert"
remained in effect in
the mountainous regions
of Comayagua and
Choluteca because rain
could cause mudslides.
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