Felix: 18 People Dead and 60 missing

COMAYAGUA, Honduras --

The death toll rose to at least 18 in Nicaragua and flood waters
rose to perilous levels in Honduras on Wednesday as the remnants of
Hurricane Felix continued to bury much of the region in rain.

In Nicaragua, where Felix struck land a day earlier as a Category 5
hurricane, a civil defense spokesman said Wednesday night that at least
18 people died and another 60 people were missing.

In neighboring Honduras, serious flooding was reported in many
areas, especially in the populous northwest section around the city of
San Pedro Sula.

There, the Ulúa River and other rivers could not contain heavy rain
that fell for 24 hours -- and kept falling Wednesday night -- on
surrounding mountains.

''I haven't seen these rivers so high in many years and they are
still rising,'' said Roberto Micheletti, president of Honduras'
National Congress.

At the same time, government officials expressed hope that Honduras
might escape the massive post-hurricane mudslides that have killed
thousands in the past.

And a multinational effort began to aid the hard-hit Mosquito Coast in eastern Nicaragua and Honduras.

A U.S. military Chinook helicopter, en route to the especially
devastated region around Puerto Cabezas, stopped for fuel Wednesday at
Managua's airport and was quickly approached by Nicaraguan authorities
in need of help.

''We have various communities that have been completely destroyed,''
said Nicaraguan Air Force Major Douglas Gonzalez. ``Tuapi had 107
houses and only seven are still there. And those don't have roofs. The
rest of them no longer exist.''

He said that ''everything was destroyed'' in a 20-mile stretch north of Puerto Cabezas.

The U.S. Southern Command also diverted the USS Wasp -- which
resembles an aircraft carrier and can accommodate helicopters and some
fixed-wing aircraft -- from an exercise in the Caribbean to the coast
of Nicaragua to assist with disaster relief efforts.

Rear Adm. Harry Harris, director of operations for the command, said
the Wasp was expected to arrive in the area Thursday and will be used
``to coordinate and synchronize U.S. military assistance to the people
of Nicaragua.''

Even as help began arriving, the storm's rain kept falling and its
runoff kept accumulating -- and early indications were worrisome.

Thousands of people were flooded out of their homes Wednesday and 10
relatively small landslides were reported around Honduras. In many
cases, the floods carried raw sewage into houses. Some people rode away
from their homes in the scoops of bulldozers.

Those living near the Ulúa were most endangered.

''We are alarmed by the heavy rains falling in the mountains upriver
that will cause the river to rise higher,'' Marcos Burgos, Honduras'
emergency commissioner, said as he placed several towns between San
Pedro Sula and the Caribbean on ``red alert.''

Many evacuees retreated to shelters, only to find them closed. They
said local officials had let down their guard after the winds subsided.

That was just what forecasters feared would happen.

The National Hurricane Center issued its last advisory on Felix
early Wednesday, saying that the storm's winds were dissipating over
Central America's mountains.

But the forecasters warned that Felix remained capable of inflicting
great harm by dumping six to 10 inches of rain on Nicaragua and El
Salvador, eight to 15 inches on Honduras and a mammoth 25 inches on
some mountainous areas.

Guatemala also received a drenching Wednesday.

''These rains will likely produce life-threatening flash floods and
mudslides,'' said hurricane specialist Lixion Avila. ``Persons in
flood-prone areas should take all necessary precautions to protect life
and property.''

The Ulúa runs for about 150 miles through northwestern Honduras,
starting in the central highlands, flowing northeastward and emptying
into the Gulf of Honduras in the Caribbean east-northeast of Puerto
Cortés.

Along the way, it is joined by the Sulaco, Otoro and Chamelecon rivers.

''All people living near the Ulúa River should be on high the
alert,'' Burgos told residents. ``The river is rising alarmingly.
Please pay close attention to your mayors and local emergency
committees.''

At least one house was destroyed by a landslide just outside San Pedro Sula, according to local residents.

Along the Mosquito Coast, nearly every building in and around Puerto
Cabezas was destroyed or damaged when Felix made landfall Tuesday as a
top-scale Category 5 storm.

''This is a major disaster,'' said Conor Walsh, director of Catholic Relief Services in Nicaragua.

Nicaraguan, Honduran and U.S. military officials mustered teams to
search for missing residents along the Mosquito Coast region, assess
the scope of the devastation and plan recovery operations.

The U.S. Southern Command, based in Miami, deployed an assessment
team and helicopters from Joint Task Force Bravo, based at Soto Cano
Air Base in Honduras.

''Military planners will continue to work with interagency partners
and their counterparts in countries affected by Felix to assess
recovery needs in the affected areas and identify U.S. military units
that may be able to provide assistance,'' the command said in an
official statement.

Col. Orlando Cantarero of the Honduran armed forces said the first
step was to send reconnaissance flights into the area ``to verify
damages and where people are suffering outdoors.

''Second, we are already readying the first air loads for their
relief and third we are going to help our Nicaraguan brothers who have
been hit very hard,'' he said. ``We are going to send 10 doctors during
their emergency and supplies like roofing, bedding and food.''

The Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa quoted President Daniel Ortega as saying that five people died in Puerto Cabezas.

He said one person was missing there, more than 3,000 homes were
destroyed, 2,686 were damaged and at least 4,000 people were homeless.

Back in Honduras, tourism officials said Felix spared the popular
vacation islands of Roatán, Utila and Guanaja and nearby cities along
the northern coast. All resumed normal operations Wednesday, a
spokeswoman said.

COMAYAGUA, Honduras --

Rescue and relief missions were under way Wednesday as the remnants
of Hurricane Felix dropped torrents of rain on cities and villages
tucked into Central America's mountains and valleys.

Felix killed at least five people, including a baby born outdoors in
the storm, in Nicaragua and one man in Honduras, according to early,
fragmentary reports. A variety of ominous but unconfirmed accounts said
scores were missing at sea.

The confirmed toll seemed certain to rise as information arrived from remote regions.

''This is a major disaster,'' said Conor Walsh, director of Catholic Relief Services in Nicaragua.

On Wednesday, Nicaraguan, Honduran and U.S. military officials
mustered teams to search for missing residents of the hard-hit Mosquito
Coast region, assess the scope of the devastation and plan recovery
operations.

The Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa quoted President Daniel Ortega as
saying that five people died in the Mosquito Coast city of Puerto
Cabezas.

He said one person was missing there, more than 3,000 homes were
destroyed, 2,686 were damaged and at least 4,000 people were homeless.

The U.S. Southern Command, based in Miami, said it was deploying an
assessment team and helicopters from Joint Task Force Bravo, based at
Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras.

''Military planners will continue to work with interagency partners
and their counterparts in countries affected by Felix to assess
recovery needs in the affected areas and identify U.S. military units
that may be able to provide assistance,'' the command said in an
official statement.

Meanwhile, hurricane forecasters issued their last advisory on
Felix, saying its winds were dissipating over Central America's
mountains.

But they warned that the storm remained capable of inflicting great
harm by dumping six to 10 inches of rain on Nicaragua and El Salvador,
eight to 15 inches on Honduras and a mammoth 25 inches on some
mountainous areas.

''These rains will likely produce life-threatening flash floods and
mudslides,'' said hurricane specialist Lixion Avila of the National
Hurricane Center in west Miami-Dade County.

''Persons in flood-prone areas should take all necessary precautions to protect life and property,'' he warned.

During the story, some indigenous people -- with no other option --
apparently sought shelter in shallow trenches, covering themselves with
animal skins or palm fronds, according to Luigi Lotto, a relief worker
in the Mosquito Coast, a swampy, impoverished area of Honduras and
Nicaragua.

''Our most serious problems in this region are just beginning,''
said Lotto, who works for the Irish aid agency GOAL in Puerto Lempira.

The screaming wind stripped roofs off countless buildings --
including some shelters. The battering surf destroyed docks and other
structures. The slanting rain washed away roads and bridges and pooled
into waist-deep floods -- and more rain kept falling.

''Let's prepare for the worst,'' said Ricardo Alvarez, the mayor of
Tegucigalpa, a capital city of one million people who live in a
topographical bowl, surrounded by mountains. ``Every citizen must be
ready to become a life-saver.''

One terrible distinction: This was the first time in recorded
history that two Category 5 storms have come ashore during the same
season. Just two weeks ago, powerful Hurricane Dean hit Mexico's
Yucatán Peninsula.

And another: On the Pacific Coast, Hurricane Henriette slammed its
80-mph winds into the Mexican resorts surrounding Cabo San Lucas. It
was the first time in recorded history that Atlantic and Pacific
hurricanes made landfall during the same day.

Tuesday began with Felix's core, accompanied by an 18-foot wall of
water, drilling into extreme northeastern Nicaragua about 10 miles
north-northeast of Puerto Cabezas.

The storm's winds reached 160 mph, racing around an eye so perfectly
formed and distinct that it could be seen on satellite photos.

As a result, nearly every building in Puerto Cabezas lost its
thatched or sheet-metal roof and power and water services were severed,
according to Walsh. In addition, the airport control tower has been
destroyed, potentially slowing relief efforts.

''Puerto Cabezas is a scene of absolute devastation, the city is trashed,'' Walsh said.

Relaying reports from the interior that he called reliable, Walsh
said all 300 families in the village of Auas Tingni were left homeless.

It was worse along the coast, he said, where families in Barra Sandy
Bay tried to escape floods by taking to the ocean in traditional panga
boats -- long, low skiffs unsuitable for rough seas.

Two boats overturned and an estimated 45 people have not been found,
he said. Other reports spoke of missing lobster boats from Honduras and
Nicaragua.

Though Felix's winds faded rapidly as the storm passed over the
mountains of Nicaragua and Honduras, its abundant rain covered a vast
area susceptible to floods and mudslides.

Worse, its forward speed slowed, giving its rain-laden clouds more
time to linger over cities, towns, villages and -- most worrisome of
all -- mountains and valleys.

Officials said one Honduran died in a road accident caused by a rain-induced landslide.

In addition to the newborn baby in Nicaragua, one man died there of
a heart attack after refusing to evacuate and another fell off his roof
while trying to repair storm damage. Details of the other deaths were
not available.

The point at which Felix reached land sits just south of the
Nicaragan-Honduran border, an isolated area where thousands of
indigenous people live in wooden shacks, depend on canoes for
transportation and had no way out.

A few hours before the worst of the storm arrived, Nelson Allen, a
provincial governor in that part of Honduras, said he feared many of
those people would be lost.

''Unfortunately, it looks like anyone who did not get off the coast
cannot get out now, and we have heard that some of the wooden homes
have been blown down,'' Allen said.

Lotto, the Irish aid worker, said many residents of the area
traditionally seek shelter in a place they call Raak, which sits on
slightly higher ground that than the rest of the region.

''There, all they can do is dig trenches and cover themselves with
animal skins, tarps or palm fronds,'' Lotto said during a telephone
interview frequently interrupted by dropped connections.

''There could be as many as 2,000 people under cover like that in
Raak right now and we will not be able to know how they are until after
the storm passes,'' he said.

He and others said fuel supplies and food were dangerously short in
that area and electricity -- when it could be produced -- was being
rationed.

One place potentially at risk was Tegucigalpa, densely populated, poorly drained and built between mountains.

Said Alvarez, the mayor: ``We have declared a Red Alert. We have
about 300,000 people living in high risk zones in the capital.''

POTENTIALLY
CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE FELIX MAKES LANDFALL IN EXTREME NORTHEASTERN
NICARAGUA AT CATEGORY FIVE STRENGTH. FELIX IS CENTERED NEAR 14.3N 83.2W
OR VERY NEAR PUNTA GORDA NICARAGUA ABOUT 10 MI NNE OF PUERTO CABEZAS AT
04/1200 UTC...MOVING W AT 14 KT. THE ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE
IS 935 MB. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WIND SPEED IS 145 KT WITH GUSTS TO 175 KT.
SEE LATEST NHC INTERMEDIATE PUBLIC ADVISORY UNDER AWIPS/WMO HEADERS
MIATCPAT1/WTNT31 KNHC AND THE FULL FORECAST ADVISORY UNDER AWIPS/WMO
HEADERS MIATCMAT1/WTNT21 KNHC FOR MORE DETAILS INCLUDING THE LATEST
WATCH AND WARNING INFORMATION. FELIX HAS CROSSED CAYOS MISKITOS AND IS
NOW MAKING LANDFALL IN NE NICARAGUA. OUTER RAINBANDS OF HEAVY RAIN/
THUNDERSTORMS HAVE BEEN OVER PORTIONS OF NICARAGUA AND HONDURAS FOR THE
PAST FEW HOURS AND COULD PRODUCE LIFE-THREATENING FLASH FLOODS AND MUD
SLIDES. CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE TO DETERIORATE OVER THE REMAINDER OF
HONDURAS AS FELIX CONTINUES ON ITS WESTWARD TRACK. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF
5 TO 10 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS N NICARAGUA AND MUCH OF HONDURAS
WITH POSSIBLE AMOUNTS OF UP TO 20 INCHES IN ISOLATED AREAS.
SCATTERED/NUMEROUS STRONG CONVECTION IS FROM 12N-17N BETWEEN 81W-85W.

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras --

Hurricane Felix clung to much of its potentially catastrophic power
Monday night as it roared toward the coastal and mountain villages of
Nicaragua, Honduras and neighboring nations.

Likely time of impact: around 6 a.m. EDT today.

Likely site of impact: on or near the Nicaragan-Honduran border, an
isolated, swampy area known as the ''Mosquito Coast,'' where thousands
of indigenous people had no way out.

Likely path after impact: passing near a chain of Honduran tourist
islands and through a vast, impoverished region serially traumatized by
hurricanes and the death and destruction they deliver.

''What is worth more, staying to protect a refrigerator or
television set or getting out and saving your own lives?'' Carlos
Gonzalez, San Pedro Sula's emergency operations chief, asked Hondurans
during a radio address as towering waves began crashing ashore.

Nine years ago, Hurricane Mitch claimed as many as 13,000 lives in Honduras. In 1974, Hurricane Fifi killed 5,000 Hondurans.

Each storm is different, and Felix, which weakened slightly as it
approached land Monday night, might prove less deadly. But there was no
doubt it posed a grave threat -- and not just to the people directly in
the path of its core.

The storm was growing in reach, and nearly all of Central America will feel its rain and some of its wind.

Gonzalez and other regional officials pleaded with people in
Honduras, Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala -- especially tourists and
others on Honduras' nine offshore islands -- to evacuate low-lying
areas and otherwise prepare for disaster.

''We are a target for this storm,'' said Dale Jackson, mayor of
Coxen Hole, the largest town on Honduras' resort island of Roatán. ``It
is coming right at us.''

The U.S. Army mobilized a CH-47 Chinook helicopter to pull 19 U.S.
citizens from Roatán and evacuate them to the coastal city of La Ceiba.
Thousands of other people left the region on commercial flights,
Honduran military planes and ferries.

Hotels and the airport in San Pedro Sula, a city in Felix's path but
about 40 miles inland, swelled with tourists and others evacuating
Roatán.

''Today was such a beautiful, sunny day that you'd never know what
is coming,'' said Lorena Nuñes, 38, who lives on the island with her
husband and four children. ``We are all afraid of what is going to
happen now.''

In a few cases, panic began setting in, with some Hondurans rushing
from shelter to shelter only to find them full and closed to new
arrivals. Food and gasoline shortages cascaded from city to city,
region to region.

Along the Mosquito Coast, known locally as La Mosquitia, tens of
thousands of indigenous people live in wooden shacks, and their primary
mode of transportation is canoe.

Shelters were few, and most of those people will have to find their own way to safety.

`WE ARE WORRIED'

''We are worried,'' said the Rev. Enrique Alagarda, who leads a
Catholic congregation in Puerto Lempira. ``In La Mosquitia, we don't
have the capability to evacuate all the people that need to be
evacuated nor do we have enough shelter for them if we could.

''A very few people have begun arriving here at Puerto Lempira, but
they came only from nearby villages,'' he said. ``We hope the first
boat trips from the coastal villages might start arriving soon, but we
haven't seen any of them yet.''

In neighboring Belize, officials declared a state of emergency,
mobilizing police and the military to help thousands of residents
evacuate. Hurricane shelters opened at midday. Schools were ordered
closed.

Southern Belize, the part of that English-speaking country most
endangered, has at least 80,000 residents, and it contains many citrus
groves and banana plantations.

Last month, Hurricane Dean grazed the northern part of Belize, destroying virtually all of the country's papaya plantations.

Still, it was Honduras, one of Central America's poorest, least
developed and most hurricane-vulnerable nations, that stood most at
risk.

Many thousands of people were told to seek shelter, and tourists
vacationing on the islands and along coastal areas desperately sought
flights home or at least inland.

''It was very difficult because there were so few planes and so many
people,'' said Carlos Chicas, a local guide who was waiting at San
Pedro Sula's airport for another wave of evacuees.

THE PREDICTIONS

''We were devastated after Mitch, because we lost 90 percent of our
business,'' said Chicas, 52. ``We are really worried about what's going
to happen this time.''

Here is what forecasters said would happen this time:

Felix's heavy squalls would arrive shortly after midnight.

Its core -- surrounded by an eye wall of 145-mph winds -- would
reach land this morning in the swamps that form the border between
Honduras and Nicaragua.

Then, it or its rainy remnants would roll through eastern and
northern Honduras before crossing into Belize, Guatemala and Mexico.

Some of those areas -- mountainous and remote -- are extremely vulnerable to flash floods and mudslides.

Others -- islands and narrow coastal plains -- are susceptible to storm surge.

Felix's storm surge could top 18 feet.

In 1974, Hurricane Fifi took a similar path, swamping the region
with 24 inches of rain. Floods and mammoth mudslides devastated
mountainside villages and killed about 5,000 Hondurans.

In 1998, Hurricane Mitch stalled near and over Honduras for days,
again producing floods and mudslides that killed an unknown number of
people, though estimates range as high as 13,000.

Felix was moving faster than those storms, which meant it likely
will not linger long enough to deliver as much rain. Forecasters said
the region should expect five to 10 inches, with a few isolated regions
receiving 20 inches.

One other modest piece of good news:

Felix's eye was wound so tightly that its hurricane-force winds
extended only 35 miles in each direction. That could limit the range of
its worst destruction.

But wherever Felix strikes land, forecasters said, it will inflict great damage.

Felix was
packing winds of up to 165 mph as it headed west, according to the U.S.
National Hurricane Center. It was projected to skirt Honduras'
coastline on Tuesday before slamming into Belize on Wednesday.

"As it stands, we're still thinking that it will be a potentially
catastrophic system in the early portions of this week, Tuesday
evening, possibly affecting Honduras and then toward the coast of
Belize," said Dave Roberts, a hurricane specialist at the center in
Miami.

A hurricane watch was issued for parts of Honduras, where
authorities were keeping a close eye on the storm but had not begun any
evacuations. Along the northern coastline, hoteliers said, tourists
were still lounging by the pool and enjoying the sun.

In Belize, residents stocked up on water and food, and nailed boards
over windows to protect against the hurricane's howling winds. Many who
lived in low-lying areas were seeking higher ground.

At 5 a.m. EDT Monday, Felix was centered about 275 miles
south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 490 miles east of Cabo
Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua-Honduras border. It was heading west at
about 21 mph, the hurricane center said.

On Sunday, Felix toppled trees and flooded some homes on the Dutch
islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire in the southern Caribbean. Heavy
rains and winds caused scattered power outages and forced thousands of
tourists to take refuge in hotels, but residents expressed relief it
did far less damage than feared as the storm's outer bands grazed the
tiny islands.

"Thankfully we didn't get a very bad storm. My dog slept peacefully
through the night," said Bonaire medical administrator Siomara
Albertus, who waited out the storm in her home with her Labrador
retriever.

Many Bonaire residents prepared for the worst, installing storm
shutters and hauling their boats ashore, but winds from Felix's outer
bands left little damage. In Curacao, several homes in a low-lying area
were flooded.

In Aruba, there was also little visible damage, although at least
one catamaran snapped off its mooring, a house was damaged by a downed
tree and power was temporarily knocked out in a northern town.

Felix is the second Atlantic hurricane of the season following last
month's Hurricane Dean, which killed at least 20 in the Caribbean and
carved out a destructive swath stretching from St. Lucia to Mexico.

On Saturday, Felix brought heavy rains and strong winds to Grenada
as a tropical storm, ripping roofs off at least two homes and
destroying a popular concert venue. No injuries were reported.

Tropical storm watches were issued for Grand Cayman and Jamaica,
which was battered by Dean on Aug. 19. A watch means tropical storm
conditions could begin affecting the island within 36 hours.

"Remember that Hurricanes Mitch, Wilma and Michelle passed far from
the island yet tropical storm force winds, waves and storm surge
damaged coastal areas," said Barbara Carby, director of the Cayman
hazard management office.

Off the Pacific coast of Mexico, meanwhile, forecasters said
Tropical Storm Henriette could strengthen to a hurricane by Monday, and
officials issued a hurricane watch for the resort-studded tip of the
Baja California peninsula, a vacation area popular with Hollywood stars
and sea fishing enthusiasts.

Henriette dumped heavy rain on western Mexico. In the resort city of
Acapulco, three people were killed when a giant boulder fell on their
home, and three more died when a landslide slammed into their house.

Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist with the hurricane center,
warned that both Felix and Henriette could shift course and said people
in the general areas should remain alert even if they aren't in the
storms' direct paths.

"Even if the forecast is perfect, that's only forecasting where the
center of the storm is going to go," she said. "So everyone in the area
needs to be aware of it, because the storms are quite large."

She advised employees of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to
monitor Felix's progress and said it could reach the area in a few
days.