Disaster Feared in Nicaragua As Hurricane Felix Makes Landfall

Hurricane Felix battered Central America yesterday, raising fears of catastrophe in a region with few resources to prepare for its arrival or cope with the consequences.

Felix smashed into Nicaragua's desperately poor Miskito coast near the town of Puerto Cabezas before dawn yesterday, with sustained winds reaching 160mph. It was expected to enter Guatemala early today, local time, and then head north into Chiapas state in Mexico.

"The situation is chaotic. Puerto Cabezas is being totally destroyed," said Antonio Joya, a regional official. "I'm sure it is going to be a total disaster."

Felix's arrival, just weeks after Hurricane Dean ploughed across Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, marks the first time since records began that two category five Atlantic storms have landed in the Americas during the same season. It is the 31st category five storm to hit the Atlantic coast since records started in 1886.

With Hurricane Henriette heading straight for the luxury resorts along Mexico's Baja California peninsula on the other side of the continent, this is also the first time hurricanes have hit from both the Atlantic and the Pacific on the same day. A category one storm, Henriette has already killed six in landslides and one woman in high surf, but most eyes were on the much stronger Felix as it barreled through Nicaragua, heading for Honduras.

The howling winds felled large trees and power lines, and peeled metal roofs from local buildings, according to the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa. There were initial reports of two dead and distress calls from three boats with a total of 49 people on board.

With the eye of the hurricane just hours from land, President Daniel Ortega had appealed to people in the storm's path to seek shelter immediately. "Material things can be replaced, lives cannot," he said.

The head of the Nicaraguan emergency operation, Colonel Rogelio Flores, said more than 12,000 people had already been evacuated, but that many were reluctant to leave their few possessions.

The Miskito coast is a low-lying swampy area dotted with small communities connected by meandering waterways. There was a last-minute appeal by a local mayor for petrol for outboard motors so that families could get out of the way of the expected 18ft storm surge. Moving at about 15mph, Felix had been downgraded to category three by mid-morning yesterday, with maximum sustained winds of 120mph. Marcos Burgos, head of the Honduras emergency operation, said this meant Felix would soon dump the bulk of the water it had sucked up into its system as it strengthened over the ocean. "This is relatively good news for Honduras," he said. "It is unfortunate for Nicaragua."