LA CEIBA, Honduras (AP): Hurricane Felix slammed intoNicaragua's Miskito Coast as a record-breaking Category 5 monster storm Tuesday in an area home to thousands of stranded Miskito Indians.
Meanwhile, off Mexico's Pacific coast, Tropical Storm Henriette strengthened into a hurricane with 120 kph (75 mph) winds and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was plowing toward the upscale resort of Cabo San Lucas, popular with Hollywood stars and sea fishing enthusiasts.
Felix landed around dawn at Punta Gorda with winds of about 260 kph, only two weeks after Hurricane Dean struck Mexico, further up the Caribbean coast. It was first time that two Category 5 hurricanes have hit land in a season since 1886, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Only 31 such storms have been recorded in the Atlantic, including eight in the last five seasons.
Nicaragua's Civil Defense chief, Rogelio Flores, said 2,000 people were evacuated before the hurricane blew roofs off homes, blocked roads and knocked out telephone service. But many other Miskito Indians refused to leave low-lying areas and head to shelters set up in schools. Twenty fishermen were missing, the newspaper La Prensa reported.
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