HONDURAS: Honduras braces for Hurricane Felix

Hondurans flocked to supermakets and gas stations on Monday (September 03) to stock up on food, water, and fuel as they prepared for the powerful winds and torrential rains of Hurricane Felix. The highly dangerous Category 4 hurricane, due to make landfall on Tuesday (September 04) morning, charged toward Nicaragua and Honduras with top sustained winds of 135 mph (215 kph), provoking fears of a repeat of Hurricane Mitch, which killed some 10,000 people in Central America in 1998. Felix, the second hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic season, had been a top-ranked Category 5 storm like Hurricane Dean, which killed 27 people in the Caribbean and Mexico in August. At 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT), the U.S. National Hurricane center said Felix was about 205 miles (325 km) east of Cabo Gracias a Dios and moving west at 18 mph (30 kph). A Category 4 is a major hurricane, capable of extensive damage and heavy flooding. Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history, was a Category 3 when it made landfall near New Orleans in 2005. Category 5 hurricanes have been rare. But there were four in the 2005 season. More this year could fan claims that global warming leads to stronger tropical cyclones. Felix was expected to smack into Honduras, hit southern Belize and move through Guatemala's Peten jungle region and into Mexico. Whether it would re-emerge over the Bay of Campeche, home of Mexico's major offshore oil fields, and strengthen again in the Gulf of Mexico was unclear.

ITN Source | September 4, 2007

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