Hurricane Felix death toll rises

Friday, 7 September 2007

At least 98 people have been killed by Hurricane Felix in Nicaragua and Honduras and dead bodies are still being recovered, officials say.

The storm hit land in north-eastern Nicaragua on Tuesday as a maximum strength category five storm.

Dozens of people are still missing and rescuers are searching the open seas and remote jungle.

Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless, but emergency aid is beginning to reach affected areas.

In Honduras, 52 Miskito Indians have been washed ashore alive, government officials said.

They had been swept off a tiny island and survived the storm by clinging to planks and lifebuoys.

Fishing communities of Miskito Indians live on island reefs along the Honduran-Nicaraguan border.

'Sucked into sea'

On Thursday, 25 bodies were found floating in the debris-strewn sea, officials in Honduras said.

Many of the victims were reportedly travelling by boat when they were hit by giant waves, while others appeared to have been sucked into the sea from their houses on the coast.

Some of the bodies were washed up on beaches, officials and eyewitnesses said.

In Nicaragua, emergency aid has been airlifted into Puerto Cabezas, the capital of the worst-hit region, but food and fuel remain scarce.

"People are out in the open - they have lost everything. Children are exposed to the rain," Nancy Enriquez, mayor of the coastal community of Bilwi, told AFP news agency.

The authorities say many of those affected live in some of the country's most remote and impoverished jungle areas, making the delivery of aid even more difficult.

Mexican deaths

The UN's World Food Programme has sent nearly five tons of food aid, with supplies also arriving from as far away as Japan.

Hurricane Felix had winds of up to 160mph (256km/h) when it made landfall.

Correspondents say the storm has revived memories throughout Central America of Hurricane Mitch, which killed some 10,000 people in 1998.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Henriette on Thursday dumped rain on the US states on Arizona and New Mexico, before dissipating.

Henriette - then at hurricane strength - hit Mexico's western Sonora state with winds of up to 120km/h (75mph), a day after lashing Baja California.

It has left nine people dead in Mexico, with a further 5,000 people still being housed in shelters as more flood warnings are put in place.