Felix's Death Toll Continues To Climb

(AP)  U.S., Honduran and Nicaraguan soldiers searched remote jungle beaches and the open sea Thursday for survivors and cadavers after Hurricane Felix claimed at least 98 lives, many of them Miskito Indians who died fleeing the Category 5 storm.

Abelino Cox, the spokesman for the Regional Emergency Committee in Puerto Cabezas, said the death toll from Felix had risen to 98 as authorities search the Miskito coastline that stretches across the Nicaragua-Honduras border for people missing two days after the hurricane hit.

The previous toll was at least 65 dead, but Cox did not say where the other 33 deaths occurred.

The ocean was filled with debris, preventing a rescue mission from coming ashore in Sandy Bay, where the eye of Felix made landfall Tuesday with catastrophic 160 mph winds and a storm surge estimated at 18 feet above normal tides.

Felix swept over the Miskito Coast, an impoverished region where about 150,000 people live in jungle settlements. Their hamlets of wooden shacks and coconut groves are remote even in good weather, reachable only by air or flat-bottom boats.

About 150 Miskito Indians who live on low-lying reefs and keys off the swampy coast of Nicaragua survived by grabbing anything that floated as the huge storm surge swamped their island homes and tore apart the flimsy wooden shacks. They hung on to tables, buoys and canoes.

"We think there are many more people floating in the sea," said Carolina Echeverrria, a congresswoman in neighboring Honduras after authorities rescued the Miskitos, nine of whom were in serious condition.

The Miskitos, descendants of Indians, European settlers and African slaves, live semi-autonomously, much like people on Indian reservations in the United States.

As Felix's remnants drenched Central America, Hurricane Henriette plowed into Mexico for the second time in two days Wednesday, making landfall near the port city of Guaymas with top sustained winds of 75 mph before weakening as it headed inland.

Henriette faded into a tropical depression and was dissipating over Mexico's Sonoran desert, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Its remnants were expected to dump a few inches of rain on New Mexico.

Nine deaths were reported from the Pacific storm, which hit Baja California on Tuesday. On Wednesday, a clam digger was swept away by high tides and a man fell from his roof while conducting repairs, Mexico's government news agency Notimex reported.

Food and fuel in Nicaragua remained scarce after Felix hit, even as emergency aid was airlifted into the regional capital of Puerto Cabezas, a town difficult to reach even in good weather.

Johana Aliberto Maquiave, 36, was stuck in Puerto Cabezas, trying to get back to her family in Sandy Bay, the village where the eye of the storm hit.

"I want to know what happened to my three children," she said, fighting back tears. "The poor kids stayed with their dad. I am here with nothing. I came on Sunday to buy food."

Felix wiped out crops and damaged most of the 70 tons of food and emergency goods that had been flown in before the storm.

On Wednesday, it was hard to find a building that wasn't damaged. Puerto Cabezas' hospital was filled with water, and doctors attended to the injured at an improvised clinic.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega flew over the area to survey the damage. He said that the United States and Venezuelan offered aid and that Cuban doctors were already on the ground. Nicaragua's military flew in sheets, mattresses, food and first aid materials.

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[hawksprings]

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[zykracosmos]

The tragedy of the Miskitos people continues. Thousands were wiped out by Hurricane Mitch, and not a Cat 5 hurricane gives them a direct hit. There are no roads in this region, only waterways where thousands of people, perhaps the last free people in the world, live off the land, traveling up and down waterways by canoe. Now thousands of them are huddled on high ground, their rice and bean crops destroyed, their cattle drowned, and many relatives missing. Sadly most of these folks will die not of drowning or injuries sustained from the hurricane, but from thirst. That''s right- thirst. Many of us have tried desperately to convince emergency management teams from the Red Cross, the US government, and Central American governments to drop payloads of 5-gallon water jugs at designated high ground drop zones, and the plea has fallen on deaf ears. Now the tragedy begins. If you want to help these people, send an email to this address and I''ll tell you how to help: [e-mail]