Felix The Cat Five Slams Central America

Hurricane Felix roared ashore this morning as a category five storm with winds in excess of 150 mph. It's a very dangerous storm and is expected to dump a foot of rain on parts of Central America, including Honduras, Belize, and Mexico, before curling into the American Southwest as a tropical depression bringing winds and heavy rains.

Hurricane Felix roared ashore early Tuesday as a fearsome Category 5 storm - the first time in recorded history that two top-scale storms have made landfall in the same season. The storm hit near the swampy Nicaragua-Honduras border, home to thousands of stranded Miskito Indians dependent on canoes to make their way to safety.

Felix was the first of two major storms expected to make landfall on Tuesday: Off Mexico's Pacific coast, Hurricane Henriette churned toward the upscale resort of Cabo San Lucas, popular with Hollywood stars and sea fishing enthusiasts.

On the Nicaraguan coast, 2,000 people were evacuated before the hurricane blew roofs off homes, blocked roads and knocked out telephone service, said Nicaragua's Civil Defense chief, Rogelio Flores.