Honduras fears flooding from deadly storm
TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) — Felix, once a mighty hurricane, weakened into a tropical depression Wednesday but still threatened to trigger floods and mudslides in Nicaragua and Honduras, having already killed four people.
Felix slammed ashore in Nicaragua on Tuesday as a huge category-five hurricane but gradually lost steam as it moved across the country into neighboring Honduras.
But the storm continued to worry Central Americans haunted by memories of Hurricane Mitch, which killed 9,000 people in 1998.
Residents of Tegucigalpa rushed to supermarkets and gas stations to stock up on food, water and fuel in case the Honduran capital's major roads are blocked by floods or mudslides.
The tropical depression was expected to produce total rainfall of six to 10 inches (up to 25.4 centimeters) across northern Nicaragua and El Salvador, and eight to 15 inches over much of Honduras, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
Felix could dump 25 inches of rain in some mountainous areas, the center said.
"These rains will likely produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides," the center said. "Persons in flood-prone areas should take all necessary precautions to protect life and property."
The tropical depression was weakening rapidly over the mountains of Central America as it closed in on Tegucigalpa with maximum sustained winds of 45 kilometers per hour (30 mph).
Felix packed winds of 260 kph when it charged into Nicaragua Tuesday, destroying 5,000 homes.
"The situation is serious, but thank God the number of victims is not as high as those caused by Hurricane Mitch," Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said at a news conference, where he declared a state of emergency to direct aid to some 38,000 people.
The worst hit area was Puerto Cabezas, a Nicaraguan Caribbean coast town of 40,000 whose wooden homes were dismantled by the hurricane's punch.
"Puerto Cabezas is destroyed," said Reinaldo Francis, the governor of Nicaragua's North Atlantic Autonomous Region, where an estimated 200,000 people live in abject poverty. "People lost the little they had."
A baby died shortly after birth in the Puerto Cabezas, Health Minister Maritza Cuan said, adding that the girl's mother had refused to head to a shelter ahead of the storm.
One man died when his home collapsed, another was killed when he fell from a roof and a third drowned.
Ten fishing boats are missing off Nicaragua's coast, according to the army.
Francois Duboc, a representative of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office, said fallen trees were blocking road access to Puerto Cabezas.
"We can barely get out of Puerto Cabezas," he told AFP by telephone. "It will take a lot of time to reach the area."
A second storm has tormented the region's west coast, as Hurricane Henriette charged across Mexico's Baja California peninsula Tuesday and was edging closer to its mainland on Wednesday, packing 120 kilometer per hour winds.
Henriette, a category-one hurricane, was over the Gulf of California between the peninsula and Sinaloa state, about 125 kilometers southwest of the city of Los Mochis, according to the US hurricane center.
While still a tropical storm, Henriette left seven people dead over the weekend amid widespread mudslides along Mexico's southern Pacific coast.
