Felix's Death Toll Continues To Climb

98 Lives Lost So Far In Central America; Rescuers Continue To Search Seas And Isolated Towns

(AP) 
Residents hacked at fallen trees with machetes, trying to uncover the remains of their humble homes. There was very little electricity, running water or telephone service.

Larry Hansack, 38, gazed at a sea littered with splintered wood and shattered tin, wondering about his nephew, a fisherman who disappeared at sea. "There's no one to help me, and everything is disorganized," he said.

Teresa Flores, 34, rode out the storm at a neighbor's house after her wooden home collapsed, injuring her husband and 3-year-old son. Looters later took what was left.

"They took the clothes, even the barrels where we keep water," she said. "Now we have nothing to drink. We lost all our food, the television set, the microwave, even the toilet. Nothing works. We are pretty much in the street."

At one point during the storm, she tried to check on her home, but "I took a few steps and couldn't move forward. The wind said 'no.'"

The remains of Felix were still dumping rain Wednesday on Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, and thousands of evacuees anxiously stayed away from shaky hillside slums and swollen rivers.

In San Pedro Sula, in northern Honduras, one shantytown filled with water after a river burst its bank. Police rode bulldozers to evacuate slum dwellers from water that was waist-deep and rising, but many refused to leave, fearing their remaining possessions would be stolen.

David Serato, 42, left. "Life is more important than personal belongings," he said. "If I stayed, I would die."

Many had feared a repeat of the 1998 nightmare of Hurricane Mitch, which stalled over Central America for days, causing floods and mudslides that killed nearly 11,000 people and left more than 8,000 missing.

Henriette set off mudslides earlier that killed six people in Acapulco as it moved northward up Mexico's Pacific coast, and a woman drowned in high surf as the storm approached the Baja California peninsula.

Mexican navy Capt. Leopoldo Mendoza said a navy helicopter was searching the Bay of La Paz for a missing boat carrying two Mexicans and two Japanese.

The storm became a hurricane just before its direct hit on the upscale desert resorts of Los Cabos on Baja's southern tip Tuesday. The luxury hotels suffered little damage, but plywood shacks in the surrounding slums were destroyed.

"Everything is soaked," said Homero Cruz Marcelino, a 28-year-old gardener who rode out the storm with his pregnant wife and son in a shack that was reduced to little more than a wooden frame. He estimated the damage at $500, a small fortune given his income.

[oakishpines]

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[hawksprings]

Maybe if Algore would stop flying around in private jets releasing more CO2 and causing more global warming this wouldn''t have happened.
http://www.drudgereport.com/gore.htm

...

[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]