2007-09-04

By Alex Morales

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Felix slammed into Nicaragua at Category 5, making this the first Atlantic season in which two of the strongest-rated storms have made landfall. In the Pacific, Henriette became a hurricane and headed for Mexico.

The eye of Felix was over the Nicaraguan coast ``very near'' Punta Gorda and about 15 kilometers north-northeast of Puerto Cabezas shortly before 6 a.m. local time, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory on its Web site. Felix was packing ``potentially catastrophic'' winds of about 260 kilometers (160 miles) per hour and heading west at 26 kph, the U.S. center said.

``It's hitting really hard with the wind and rain,'' Victor Cordoba, owner of the Las Colinas hotel, about 2 kilometers inland near Puerto Cabezas, said in a telephone interview about 20 minutes before landfall. ``Tiles are being pulled off the houses.''

Nicaragua and Honduras placed areas in the storm's track under red alert, the maximum state of emergency. Felix slammed into Nicaragua two weeks after Hurricane Dean, also a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, battered Mexico's Yucatan peninsula after plowing across the Caribbean and killing at least a dozen people.

``The center of Felix will be moving inland over northeastern Nicaragua today and over Honduras later today and tonight,'' the hurricane center said. ``The hurricane will weaken as it moves inland.''

Life-Threatening

Hurricane-force winds extended 75 kilometers from the center of Felix, and tropical storm-force winds reached out 185 kilometers. The hurricane center warned that the latest system may bring life-threatening conditions to coastal and upland areas.

``Storm-surge flooding in excess of 18 feet (5.5 meters) above normal tide levels, along with large and dangerous battering waves, is possible to the north of where the center is making landfall,'' the U.S. forecaster said. Rains of up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) ``will likely produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides,'' it said.

Honduras declared a red alert in the Bay Islands and the regions of Gracias a Dios, Colon, Atlantida, Cortes y Yoro and parts of Olancho, according to a statement on the Web site of the country's Permanent Commission of Contingencies. Schools in the alerted areas are closed today, and all people at risk should evacuate, the commission said.

Red Alerts

In Nicaragua, red alerts were issued for the autonomous North Atlantic region and in parts of the Puerto Cabezas and Waspam municipalities, the country's National System for the Prevention, Mitigation and Attention of Disasters said on its Web site.

A hurricane warning was in effect along the coast from Puerto Cabezas in Nicaragua northward and westward to Limon in Honduras. Farther west, the remainder of the Honduran coast and the Caribbean shores of Guatemala and Belize were under a hurricane watch.

Felix's forecast track has moved steadily southward over the past few days, and now looks likely to miss Mexico's oil platforms in the Gulf. Hurricane Dean's passage last month forced Petroleos Mexicanos to evacuate workers from more than 400 offshore wells, shutting down output of about 2.65 million barrels a day.

The hurricane center's forecast shows Felix moving across northeastern Nicaragua, central Honduras, Guatemala and southwestern Mexico, as it weakens to a tropical storm and then a depression.

Henriette

Mexico also faces an impact from Henriette in the Pacific, which the hurricane center warned could bring 30 centimeters of rain, provoking flash floods and mudslides.

After tracking parallel to the coast as a tropical storm over the past four days, Henriette's sustained winds today strengthened to hurricane force and were at 120 kilometers an hour at about 6 a.m. La Paz, Baja California, time, the U.S. hurricane center said.

The system, which caused landslides that killed six people in and around Acapulco as it passed near the coast, was 125 kilometers south-southeast of the southern tip of the peninsula, and heading north-northwest at 13 kph.

Baja California was under a hurricane warning from Loreto southward on the east coast and from Bahia Magdalena southward on the western shore. Hurricane watches were in place farther north on the peninsula and in Sinaloa and Sonora states on the mainland from Altata to Guaymas.

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