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"Si" Vote Picking up
Momentum
Christmas Has Arrived in
Costa Rica
Heavy Rain
Predicted Starting This Afternoon
Jacó To Inaugurate Beach
Cleaning Machines
Hurricane
Felix Aims at Central
America, Will Miss Costa
Rica |
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Hurricane
Felix Aims at Central
America, Will Miss Costa
Rica
Potentially catastrophic
Hurricane Felix is
blowing quickly westward
across the Caribbean Sea
towards Honduras and
Nicaragua. The National
Hurricane Centre in
Miami measures the
storm's maximum
sustained winds at 165
miles per hour with
higher gusts.
After drenching the
islands of Aruba,
Curacao and Bonaire on
the weekend, toppling
trees and power lines
and forcing thousands of
tourists to take refuge
in the hotels, Hurricane
Felix strengthened
quickly to the most
dangerous class of
storm, a category 5.
Within hours of forming
a tropical depression in
the Atlantic early
Saturday, Felix became a
tropical storm, and
within the span of a day
it blew through
categories 1, 2, 3, and
4. By Sunday night it
had hit the maximum
Category 5 and was
howling across the warm
waters of the Caribbean
Sea.
A tropical storm watch
remains in effect for
Grand Cayman and also
for Jamaica where more
than 1.3 million voters
head to the polls in a
general election today.
Felix is expected to hit
the coast of Honduras on
Tuesday before blowing
into Belize on
Wednesday.
The hurricane now is
moving westward at 21
miles per hour and the
National Hurricane
Center predicts that
pace and direction will
continue for the next 24
hours. The center of
Felix will be near the
coasts of extreme
northeastern Nicaragua
and northeastern
Honduras early on
Tuesday morning,
forecasters say.
The National Hurricane
Centre says, "Although
Felix is an extremely
powerful hurricane, it
has a very small wind
field. Hurricane force
winds extend outward up
to 30 miles from the
center and tropical
storm force winds extend
outward up to 115
miles."
Reports from a National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration hurricane
hunter aircraft
"indicate that Felix
continues to rapidly
strengthen," the
National Hurricane
Centre said in its
latest public advisory.
The government of
Honduras has issued a
hurricane warning from
Limon eastward to the
Honduras-Nicaragua
border and a hurricane
watch from Limon west to
the Guatemala border.
Hurricane conditions are
also possible over
extreme northeastern
Nicaragua.
The Honduran Permanent
Commission on
Emergencies, Copeco, is
expecting high winds and
torrential rains from
early Tuesday through
Thursday.
Today, Copeco is
activating the
logistics,
communications and
rescue groups and
getting shelters ready
in case it is necessary
to evacuate people in
the resort city of La
Ceiba.
Copeco's North Zone
commissioner Baldemar
Alvarado warns that the
speed of Felix is faster
and the wind gusts
stronger than those of
Hurricane Dean in
August.
Felix appears to be on
the same trajectory as
disastrous Hurricane
Mitch that lashed the
country in October 1998,
killing thousands and
damaging tourist areas
that still have not
completely recovered.
Felix is also predicted
to bring heavy rains to
northern Colombia and
Venezuela. +
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The projected path of Hurricane Felix
(Image courtesy NWS)
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