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.

Felix's Five Threatens Central America

Hurricane Felix has become a category five hurricane and threatens the heart of Central America. From the Times:

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.

Honduras issued a hurricane warning for parts of the country, including sections of the border with Nicaragua, and a hurricane watch remained in effect for other areas and one was issued for parts of the Honduras-Guatemala border. 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.