
Hurricane Felix, a dangerous Category 5 storm, is driving through the Caribbean toward Central America, where forecasters said it could arrive as a "potentially catastrophic" storm.Felix had sustained winds near 160mph as it headed west, according to the US National Hurricane Centre. It was projected to rake Honduras' coastline on Tuesday before slamming into Belize on Wednesday.Tourists crammed Honduran airports seeking flights out before the storm, but some locals said they would ride it out.In Belize, residents stocked up on water and food, and nailed boards over windows. Many who live in low-lying areas were moving to higher ground.And many were still cleaning up from last month's Hurricane Dean, which caused an estimated ?50 million in damage, mostly to agriculture.On Sunday Felix toppled trees and flooded some homes on the Dutch islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire in the southern Caribbean. Heavy rains and winds caused scattered power outages and forced thousands of tourists to take refuge in hotels, but it did less damage than feared as the storm's outer bands grazed the tiny islands.In Aruba, there was also little visible damage, although at least one catamaran snapped off its mooring, a house was damaged by a downed tree and power was temporarily knocked out in a northern town.Felix is the second Atlantic hurricane of the season following last month's Hurricane Dean, which killed at least 28 people as ploughed through the Caribbean and then slammed into Mexico as a Category 5 storm.The hurricane centre said Felix could dump up to 12 inches of rain in isolated parts of northern Honduras and north-eastern Nicaragua, possibly bringing flash floods and mudslides. It was projected to move across Guatemala's Peten region and southern Mexico, then emerge in the southern Gulf of Mexico, an area dotted with major oil drilling platforms.Off Mexico's Pacific coast, meanwhile, Tropical Storm Henriette was forecast to strengthen to a hurricane before hitting the resort-studded tip of the Baja California Peninsula on Tuesday.
As in the days of Noah....