Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Honduras, Nicaragua brace for Hurricane Felix fury

Felix looked set to slam ashore near the Honduran-Nicaraguan border on Tuesday morning.

Honduras and Nicaragua braced for the worst and ordered thousands of evacuations as Hurricane Felix barrelled toward Central America on Monday with winds topping 230km/h. Authorities in the two countries, as well as aid organisations, readied for a potential disaster as the approaching storm rekindled memories of the devastation wrought in 1998 by Mitch, one of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes in history.

Thousands of people along the Caribbean coast of Honduras and Nicaragua were ordered to head to safer ground, and residents in other areas were told to pack emergency supplies in case of flooding or mudslides. Several hundred tourists were also evacuated aboard boats and planes from the Honduran islands of Roatan and Guanaja, which are popular with scuba divers.

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