ORANJESTAD, Aruba -Felix has strengthened into a dangerous Category Five hurricane and has torn through the Caribbean Sea on a path toward Central America, where forecasters said it will make landfall as a “potentially catastrophic” storm.
Felix, the second hurricane of the 2007 season and the second after last month’s Hurricane Dean to ramp up to Category 5 strength over the warm waters of the
Caribbean, maintained its power overnight as it plowed swiftly westward on a course expected to graze the northern Honduran coast.
“As it stands, we’re still thinking that it will be a potentially catastrophic system in the early portions of this week, Tuesday evening, possibly affecting Honduras and then toward the coast of Belize,” said Dave Roberts, a hurricane specialist at the centre in Miami.
Honduras posted hurricane warnings from Limon eastward to the border with Nicaragua and a hurricane watch from Limon westward to the border with Guatemala. A warning means hurricane conditions are likely within 24 hours and a watch means hurricane conditions can be expected within 36 hours.
In Belize, which like Guatemala issued a hurricane watch, residents stocked up on water and food, and nailed boards over windows to protect against the hurricane’s howling winds. Many who lived in low-lying areas were seeking higher ground.
Around 11 p.m. EST last night Hurricane Felix was about 300 miles southeast of Kingston, Jaimaca and moving at 21 mph.
The National Hurricane Center called Felix “an extremely powerful” storm. The only good thing about this news is that it has a “very small wind field.”
“Thankfully we didn’t get a very bad storm. My dog slept peacefully through the night,” said Bonaire medical administrator Siomara Albertus, who waited out the storm in her home with her Labrador retriever.
These are the countries Felix is expected to affect:
• Nicaragua
• Honduras
• Belize
• Guatemala
• Mexico
The hurricane is expected to produce between five and eight inches of rain across northern Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua. The advisory warned the rains could result in flash floods and dangerous mud slides.
Felix is the second Atlantic hurricane of the season following last month’s Hurricane Dean, which killed at least 20 in the Caribbean and carved out a destructive swath stretching from St. Lucia to Mexico.
“Even if the forecast is perfect, that’s only forecasting where the centre of the storm is going to go,” she said. “So everyone in the area needs to be aware of it, because the storms are quite large.”