This is only the fourth year since 1886 that more than one Category 5
hurricane was recorded in an Atlantic season, according to the U.S.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Only 31 Category 5
hurricanes have been recorded in the Atlantic since 1886, and eight of
them have formed in the last five seasons.
Felix is currently on a fierce course to Honduras and thus Roatan . .
Felix
was headed west with 145 mph winds, according to the U.S. National
Hurricane Center, which warned the “extremely dangerous” storm could
strengthen before it reaches the Honduran coast on Tuesday and then
slams into Belize, where many residents were still cleaning up from
last month’s Hurricane Dean.
“We are ready to face an eventual tragedy,” said Douglas Fajardo, fire chief on the Caribbean resort island of Roatan.
Some 300 tourists were evacuated from
Honduras’ islands by midday Monday, and 400 others were awaiting
flights, said Armando Funez, a spokesman for the country’s National
Airline Association. Winds and surf were picking up, with some waves
crashing 15 feet higher than normal.
“The tourists, they’re evacuating. We’re staying here,” said Estella Marazzito, who works at a Roatan real estate company. “At this moment, it’s what they call the calm before the storm. There isn’t even a breeze,” she said, but added, “We know it’s a tremendous hurricane that’s coming.”
Belize stocks up on supplies
In
Belize, residents stocked up on water and food, and nailed boards over
windows. Many who live in low-lying areas moved to higher ground. And
many were still cleaning up from last month’s Hurricane Dean, which
caused an estimated $100 million in damage, mostly to agriculture, in
Belize alone.
“I stopped cleaning debris and trees from my yard. Might just get messed up again,” said Wayne Leonardo.
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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.
“Thankfully we didn’t get a very bad storm. My dog slept peacefully through the night,” said Siomara Albertus, a Bonaire medical administrator who waited out Felix at home with her Labrador retriever.
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, which briefly reached category 5 status Monday, is the second Atlantic hurricane of the season following last month’s Hurricane Dean, which killed at least 28 people as plowed through the Caribbean and then slammed into Mexico as a Category 5 storm.
This is only the fourth year since 1886 that more than one Category 5 hurricane was recorded in an Atlantic season, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Only 31 Category 5 hurricanes have been recorded in the Atlantic since 1886, and eight of them have formed in the last five seasons.
Felix weakens but remains fearsome
At
2 p.m. EDT Monday, Felix’s winds had dropped slightly from a peak of
165 mph. And while it remained a fearsome hurricane, it had a very
small wind field, with hurricane-force winds extending 30 miles from
its center.
Felix was centered about 305 miles east of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua-Honduras border, moving west at about 21 mph, the hurricane center said.
The hurricane center said Felix could dump up to 12 inches of rain in isolated parts of northern Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua, possibly bringing flash floods and mudslides.
Honduran authorities were evacuating people from low-lying coastal areas and clearing vendors from markets prone to flooding in the highland capital of Tegucigalpa, more than 100 miles inland.
It was projected to slash across Guatemala’s Peten region and southern Mexico, then emerge in the southern Gulf of Mexico, an area dotted with major oil drilling platforms.