Felix’s Toll Mounts, Missions Begin
By Casey Woods, Tony Brand and Martin Merzer, The Miami Herald
Sep. 5–COMAYAGUA, Honduras — Rescue and relief missions were under way Wednesday as the remnants of Hurricane Felix dropped torrents of rain on cities and villages tucked into Central America’s mountains and valleys.
Felix killed at least five people, including a baby born outdoors in the storm, in Nicaragua and one man in Honduras, according to early, fragmentary reports. A variety of ominous but unconfirmed accounts said scores were missing at sea.
The confirmed toll seemed certain to rise as information arrived from remote regions.
Officials said nearly every building in Puerto Cabezas and the rest of the Mosquito Coast was destroyed or damaged when Felix made landfall there Tuesday as a top-scale Category 5 storm.
Flooding was reported in many areas of Nicaragua and Honduras, especially around the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, and heavy rain continued to fall in many areas Wednesday.
“This is a major disaster,” said Conor Walsh, director of Catholic Relief Services in Nicaragua.
Nicaraguan, Honduran and U.S. military officials mustered teams to search for missing residents along the Mosquito Coast region, assess the scope of the devastation and plan recovery operations.
The U.S. Southern Command, based in Miami, said it was deploying an assessment team and helicopters from Joint Task Force Bravo, based at Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras.
“Military planners will continue to work with interagency partners and their counterparts in countries affected by Felix to assess recovery needs in the affected areas and identify U.S. military units that may be able to provide assistance,” the command said in an official statement.
Col. Orlando Cotarelo of the Honduran armed forces said the first step was to send reconnaissance flights into the area “to verify damages and where people are suffering outdoors.
“Second, we are already readying the first air loads for their relief and third we are going to help our Nicaraguan brothers who have been hit very hard,” he said. “We are going to send 10 doctors during their emergency and supplies like roofing, bedding and food.”
The Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa quoted President Daniel Ortega as saying that five people died in Puerto Cabezas.
He said one person was missing there, more than 3,000 homes were destroyed, 2,686 were damaged and at least 4,000 people were homeless.
Meanwhile, hurricane forecasters issued their last advisory on Felix, saying its winds were dissipating over Central America’s mountains.
But they warned that the storm remained capable of inflicting great harm by dumping six to 10 inches of rain on Nicaragua and El Salvador, eight to 15 inches on Honduras and a mammoth 25 inches on some mountainous areas.
“These rains will likely produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides,” said hurricane specialist Lixion Avila of the National Hurricane Center in west Miami-Dade County.
“Persons in flood-prone areas should take all necessary precautions to protect life and property,” he warned.
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