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13th hurricane of the year
29/10/2005 09:38 - (SA)
Bogota, Colombia - The storm Beta was upgraded to a hurricane early on Saturday, the 13th so far this year and a record for the Atlantic hurricane season.
"Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 120 kph with higher gusts. This makes Beta a Category 1 hurricane," the Miami-based hurricane centre said.
The hurricane, which began whipping the Colombian island of Providencia on Friday, was expected to move north-northwest and slam into Central America by Sunday as a Category 2 storm.
Thousands of people in Nicaragua were being evacuated and army soldiers were brought in to help.
This hurricane season which has seen 23 named storms, more than at any point since record keeping began in 1851. The previous record of 21 was set in 1933.
The Manhattan-sized island of Providencia, located more than 180 kilometres off Central America's Caribbean coast, received a direct hit by Beta while it was still a tropical storm.
Beta became a hurricane while whipping the mountainous island. Officials said the island was still being affected, although the hurricane's centre had moved north of the island.
"Extensive damage to homes has occurred on the island, and all communications to Providencia have been lost," said the hurricane centre.
During a brief time in which telephone service was working on the island, officials there said scores of homes were damaged, but that it appeared residents were safe.
"We believe there are no deaths or injuries," Capt German Collazos, ports chief on the island, told The Associated Press by telephone late on Friday, about three hours into the storm.
But he said it wouldn't be until daybreak that officials could do a complete check on the 5 000 residents on the island and a handful of tourists.
The hurricane centre warned of storm surges of up to 13 feet along the eastern coast of Nicaragua when the slow-moving hurricane makes landfall.
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