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Hurricanes lash Central America
06/09/2007 08:15 - (SA)
Bilwi - Rare double hurricanes lashed Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico on Wednesday, killing at least 40 people as a waning Felix left a trail of destruction and Henriette gathered force.
Nicaraguan authorities said Felix's toll of 38 dead was likely to rise after it displaced 50 000 people and sent search-and-rescue teams fanning out along the northeast of the country, where the storm hit hardest.
"There are 38 dead," national disaster authority chief Ramon Arnesto Soza told local radio, adding that the number was expected to rise. Some 120 people who had refused to evacuate their homes were missing, he said.
"We must speed up (search) efforts," said Reynaldo Francis, governor of Nicaragua's impoverished North Atlantic Autonomous Region, the worst hit by the hurricane.
In Mexico, Hurricane Henriette claimed the lives of two men as it hit the northeastern town of Guaymas with winds up to 120km/h, local authorities there said.
More death, destruction
One day after it slammed ashore from the Caribbean, smashing thousands of homes, Felix lost all its punch, but the rain it dumped raised fears of floods and mudslides in neighboring Honduras.
Teams deploying along Nicaragua's coast feared they would find more death and destruction as they made their way to isolated communities whose wooden shacks offered no protection from the 260km/h winds the hurricane packed when it thundered onto land.
"We are getting information of bodies floating in the water," Francis said in a conversation with President Daniel Ortega broadcast on national television.
Among those killed by the storm's fury was a baby who died at birth, officials said.
The storm conjured memories of the devastating Hurricane Mitch, which killed thousands and wreaked untold damage in Nicaragua and Honduras in 1998.
Many areas along Nicaragua's Caribbean coast were devastated by the storm that smashed thousands of homes, many of them made of wood and tin.
"People are out in the open, they have lost everything, children are exposed to the rain," said Mayor Nancy Enriquez, the mayor of the coastal community of Bilwi.
The worst hit was Puerto Cabezas, an impoverished city of 40 000 where officials said 90% of infrastructure was wrecked. Debris of houses smashed up by the storm, downed power lines and uprooted trees littered the ground.
"It is a disaster of major proportions," said Lumberto Campbell, the government representative for Nicaragua's autonomous regions along the Caribbean coast. He said aid was needed to rebuild more than 10 000 homes.
- AFP
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