Honduras Faces Felix After Nicaragua Takes Brunt

Hurricane Felix has weakened to a tropical storm but there are still fears it could trigger mudslides in shanty-town areas of central America.

Officials feared it could dump up to 64cm (25in) of rain, causing mudslides and floods in areas where thousands of shacks are built on the hillsides.

Felix destroyed thousands of homes and killed four people when it crossed Nicaragua's Miskito coast yesterday as a category five hurricane.

One of the worst-hit areas was Puerto Cabezas on Nicaragua's remote north-east coast where Felix destroyed or badly damaged almost half the city's houses.

Last night it weakened to a tropical storm as it headed inland towards Honduras.

Airports were closed, leaving tourists to face driving rain and 4.5-meter waves, but there were no deaths reported during the storm's passage over the peninsula.

The Honduran government has ordered 30,000 people to evacuate their homes.

Ricardo Alvarez , the mayor of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, told Reuters: "Here it rains for two hours and the city floods. They're saying it could rain for 18 hours and we're preparing for the worst."

Up to 400,000 residents of the city live in areas considered vulnerable.