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NICARAGUA: Nicaraguans flee approaching Hurricane Felix

Central America's Caribbean coast is on high alert before Hurricane Felix hits. Thousands of people fled Central America's Caribbean coast on Monday (September 3) to escape the powerful winds and torrential rains of Hurricane Felix. The highly dangerous Category 4 hurricane, due to make landfall on Tuesday (September 4), was strengthening as it charged toward Honduras and Nicaragua with top sustained winds near 150 mph (240 kph). A storm surge of up to 18 feet (5.5 m) was expected. A hurricane warning was in effect in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, located 330 miles from Nicaragua's main capital city of Managua and has a population of approximately 33,000 people. Emergency services shipped Miskito Indians out of vulnerable coastal areas in Nicaragua and said they would evacuate thousands more. Maria Briseño, a Miskito woman has a house located next to the sea. She told Reuters she and her family will take shelter in a school which has been turned into a refuge. The governor of Puerto Cabezas, Reynaldo Francis, said that residents have been warned about the hurricane through the media. Colonel Mario Perez Cassar, chief of Nicaragua's civil protection agency, said evacuations would take place in 55 locations near the sea. Felix, the second hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic season, was at one point a top-ranked Category 5 storm. General Director of Meteorology, Mauricio Rosales Rosales said the intensity of the hurricane winds could produce flooding on the coast.

ITN Source | September 4, 2007Watch more videos from ITN Source

Tags:. .near. .tuesday. .thousands. .monday. .produce











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