Drenched by Felix, Honduras fears floods, mudslides

The remnants of Hurricane Felix drenched Honduras threatening to cause dangerous floods and mudslides on Wednesday, one day after the then-mighty storm killed at least nine people, left dozens missing, and smashed thousands of homes in Nicaragua."We're braced for the worst," said Gordana Jerger, deputy regional director of the World Food Program (WFP), adding that the UN agency rushed reinforcements and supplies to threatened areas.Close to 20,000 people in Honduras were evacuated, including hundreds of residents of Tegucigalpa, whose mountainous location puts the city at risk from landslides.As water levels rose, residents rushed to stores to stock up on food, water and other essentials, many remembering all too well how the capital was cut off for days in 1998 when Hurricane Mitch devastated Central America,killing at least 9,000 people.WFP said it was getting ready for emergency operations in central Honduras, warning that as many as 1.5 million people could be at risk.Now a tropical depression, Felix could dump as much as 63 centimeters (25 inches) of rains in mountainous areas of Honduras, an impoverished nation where numerous people live on unstable mountain flanks or dangerously close to flood-prone rivers.On Wednesday morning, authorities already reported 123 damaged homes and 10 landslides.Rain also continued to affect Nicaragua, one day after Felix slammed ashore on the country's northern Caribbean Coast with maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometers (160 miles) per hour.Authorities said nine deaths were confirmed in Nicaragua, including a baby who died at birth during the storm. Officials warned the toll could mount once search and rescue teams reach isolated communities, and said 96 people who lived on the Miskito Cays archipelago were missing.An estimated 5,000 homes, many of them built of wood and tin, were destroyed in the region where Hurricane Felix made landfall on Tuesday.
The worst hit was Puerto Cabezas, an impoverished city of 40,000 where officials said 90 percent of infrastructure was wrecked. Debris of houses smashed up by the storm, downed power lines and uprooted trees littered the ground.The landfall of Felix marked the first time on record that two Atlantic hurricanes hit land at the topmost category five in the same year, after Hurricane Dean barreled ashore in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula two weeks ago.Mexico was again targeted by a storm, this time from the Pacific, as Hurricane Henriette headed toward the mainland after it barreled over the country's Baja California peninsula, where thousands of residents were left without power or running water.Los Cabos was cut off from the rest of the peninsula as floods and mudslides blocked the two roads leading to the tourist resort.On Wednesday,Henriette swirled over the Gulf of California toward the mainland state of Sonora.
At 1500 GMT, it was located 110 kilometers (70 miles) west-southwest of the city of Los Mochis,and packed maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometers (75 miles) per hour, according to the US National Hurricane Center.Henriette left seven people dead over the weekend when it caused several mudslides along Mexico's southern Pacific coast.
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As in the days of Noah...