Four Dead As Hurricane Felix Hits Land at 160mph

Hurricane Felix battered central America yesterday, killing at least four people and raising fears of a catastrophe in a region with few resources to prepare for its arrival or cope with its 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, 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 in 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.

After making landfall, Felix weakened to category one, with winds of 75mph or 120kph, by last night. But forecasters worried that up to 64cm (25in) of rain would drench inland towns and cause mudslides in the mountain capitals of Tegucigalpa and Guatemala City, where shantytowns cling precariously to hillsides.

The howling winds felled large trees and power lines, and peeled metal roofs from local buildings, according to the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa.

With the eye of the hurricane hours from land, President Daniel Ortega had appealed to people in the storm's path to seek shelter. "Material things can be replaced, lives cannot," he said. The head of the emergency operation said 12,000 people had been evacuated, but many were reluctant to leave possessions.

The Miskito coast is a low-lying swampy area dotted with small communities connected by meandering waterways. There was an appeal by a mayor for petrol for outboard motors so families could escape the expected 18ft storm surge.

Marcos Burgos, head of the Honduras emergency operation, said Felix would soon dump the bulk of the water 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."