Tourists Flee As Felix Nears Honduras

Honduras and Belize Brace As Hurricane Packs Category-4 Winds

(CBS/AP)  Planes shuttled tourists from island resorts in a desperate airlift Monday as Hurricane Felix bore down on Honduras and Belize. But thousands of Miskito Indians were stranded in a swampy jungle where the Category 4 storm was expected to make landfall.

Grupo Taca Airlines provided special free flights to the mainland, quickly touching down and taking off again to scoop up more tourists. Some 1,000 people were evacuated from the Honduran island of Roatan, popular for its pristine reefs and diving resorts. Another 1,000 were removed from low-lying coastal areas and smaller islands.

Felix's top winds weakened slightly to 135 mph as it headed west, but forecasters warned that it could strengthen into catastrophic storm again before landfall. It was projected to rake the Honduran coast and slam into southern Belize on Wednesday before cutting across northern Guatemala and southern Mexico.

"It looks like Felix will come ashore as a Category 4 Hurricane," said CBS News weather analyst Bryan Norcross.

Felix seemed likely to make landfall on the Miskito Coast, an isolated area along the Honduras-Nicaragua border where thousands of Indians live in wooden shacks, get around on canoes and speak a mixture of Miskito, English, Spanish, and African languages that arose after colonization.

"There's nowhere to go here," said teacher Sodeida Rodriguez, 26.

The only path to safety is up rivers and across lakes that are too shallow for regular boats, but many lack gasoline for long journeys. Provincial health official Efrain Burgos said shelters were being prepared, and medicine and sanitation kits were being brought in, but that 18,000 people must find their own way to higher ground.

"We're asking the people who are on the coasts to find a way to safer areas, because we don't have the capability to transport so many people," he said. "The houses are made of wood. They're going to be completely swept away. They're not safe."

The storm was following the same path as 1998's Hurricane Mitch, a sluggish storm that stalled for a week over Central America, killing nearly 11,000 people and leaving more than 8,000 missing, mostly in Honduras and Nicaragua. But Felix was moving at 21 mph, much faster than Mitch.

By Monday afternoon, crashing waves reached 15 feet higher than normal on Honduras' coast, but there was no rain yet.

"We are ready to face an eventual tragedy," said Roatan fire chief Douglas Fajardo.

Most tourists took the free flights out, but locals prepared to ride out the storm.

"We know it's a tremendous hurricane that's coming," said real estate worker Estella Marazzito.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Felix could dump up to 12 inches of rain in isolated parts of northern Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua, possibly bringing flash floods and mudslides. As far away as the highland capital of Tegucigalpa, more than 100 miles inland, authorities cleared vendors from markets prone to flooding.

Across the border in Belize City, skies grew increasingly cloudy and winds kicked up as residents boarded windows and lined up for gas. Tourists competed for the last seats on flights to Atlanta and Miami. Police went door-to-door forcing evacuations. Liquor sales were banned, and stores were running out of plywood and other supplies.

"I just wish they had more airplanes to take care of everyone who has to leave," said Atlanta, Georgia, resident Mitzi Carr, 48, who cut short her weeklong vacation on Hatchet Caye.

Belize is still cleaning up from last month's Hurricane Dean, which killed 28 people as plowed through the Caribbean and slammed into Mexico as a Category 5 storm just north of Felix's track. Dean damaged crops everywhere it passed, including an estimated $100 million in Belize alone.

"I stopped cleaning debris and trees from my yard. Might just get messed up again," Wayne Leonardo said in Belize City.

Over the weekend, Felix toppled trees, flooded homes and forced tourists indoors on the Dutch islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, but caused little damage. It then grew to a Category 5 storm Monday before losing a bit of its punch.

This is only the fourth Atlantic hurricane season since 1886 with more than one Category 5 hurricane, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Only 31 such storms have been recorded in the Atlantic, including eight in the last five seasons.

If Felix regains Category 5 winds before striking land, it would be the first time in recorded history that two such killer storms have made landfall in the same season, hurricane specialist Jamie Rhome said in Miami.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Felix remained a fearsome hurricane, though it had a very small wind field, with hurricane-force winds extending just 30 miles from its center. It was centered 250 miles east of the Nicaragua-Honduras border, moving west at 20 mph.

Off Mexico's Pacific coast, meanwhile, Tropical Storm Henriette was nearing hurricane strength on a path to hit the resort-studded tip of the Baja California Peninsula on Tuesday.

With maximum sustained winds near 70 mph, Henriette caused flooding and landslides that killed six people in Acapulco. Three died when a boulder fell on their home, and three when a landslide hit their house.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Henriette was centered 185 miles south-southeast of the tip of the peninsula, pushing waves up to 22 feet high as it moved northwest at 9 mph.

Meterologist Rebecca Waddington warned that both hurricanes could shift course. "Even if the forecast is perfect, that's only forecasting where the center of the storm is going to go," she said. "So everyone in the area needs to be aware of it."

[tnt1954]

you guys better hit your knees, get out
the rosary beads and say that rosary so
fast and say so many, it''ll blow the wind
outta the hurricane. will the Lord God relent?
repent ye, the end is near.

[tnt1954]

dope labs of belize, honduras, baja california
to be hit by felix and henrietta, mother of all
hens? feeling hen-pecked? endure. suffer it
through. escape to the upper room with the
apostles of jesus. heck, its the last supper.
a little wine, a little bread. little red
hen gets furious when she sees red wine.
if you no help her bake it, she sick rooster
upon you, peck you to death. yes, innocent
shall suffer with the guilty. rain falls upon
the just and unjust. how biblical. sniffles.

[tnt1954]

right on oakishpines, you tell ''em. arrelano
felix narcotics cartel was a hurricane through
the world. like alcoholics, dope addicts
and dealers are like tornados cutting a swath
through life, blowing everyone''s mind around them. they''re not really crazy, just stoned
outta their minds. some people are naturally
crazy, they were born that way. others acuquire
insanity as they move through life. some stay
virgin clean and sober till they are 80 yrs.
old surrender to temptation and die addicted.
maybe to morphine or heroin, to soothe the
pain. there goes the inheritance meant
for the great-grandchildren. narcotics cartels
have all those with some money targeted, to
bleed them dry of every dime. good luck.

[hawksprings]

Maybe if Algore shuts off the heater on his outdoor pool at the mansion, we''ll stop having these Cat 4 and 5 storms...

...

[jn122736]

magoo2u1, I think it''''s supposed to be Bush''''s fault somehow, but I''''m sure eventually some loon will come here to say it LOL.

Seriously, what a monster storm. I feel sorry for those in its path.
Posted by Mythoughtsr at 09:09 AM : Sep 03, 2007
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If someone does blame Bush, there will, Undoubtedly, be many others blaming Clinton.

[rray52]

Alas, poor Tooter, I knew him Horatio, A turtle of infinite jest.

[drinuk]

Time for your pills Oakispines!!

[mythoughtsr]

magoo2u1, I think it''s supposed to be Bush''s fault somehow, but I''m sure eventually some loon will come here to say it LOL.

Seriously, what a monster storm. I feel sorry for those in its path.

[magoo2u1]

Isn''t someone going to suggest that god is punishing the caribbean for something ? That was the explanation for Katrina and 911. Mexico must have been very bad recently.

[rray52]

Help, Mr. Wizard, Help