Felix coming ashore at full force

Hurricane Felix settled down a bit yesterday and last night to a Category 4 but this was just a tease. In actuality the storm was going through an eye wall replacement cycle. This morning he is at Category 5 strength again with winds at 160 MPH.

Category 5 Hurricane Felix slams ashore

Hurricane Felix made landfall early Tuesday as a fearsome Category 5 storm - the first time in recorded history that two top-scale storms have come ashore in the same season. The storm hit near the swampy Nicaragua-Honduras border, home to thousands of stranded Miskito Indians dependent on canoes to make their way to safety.

Felix was the first of two major storms expected to make landfall on Tuesday: Off Mexico's Pacific coast, Hurricane Henriette churned toward the upscale resort of Cabo San Lucas, popular with Hollywood stars and sea fishing enthusiasts.
In Nicaragua, more than 12,000 people were evacuated just ahead of Felix's landfall, but some refused to leave vulnerable coastal communities, and three boats loaded with a total of 49 people sent out distress calls, civil defense official Rogelio Flores said.

"The winds are horrible," Red Cross official Claudio Vanegas said by phone from the Nicaraguan town of Puerto Cabezas shortly after Felix struck land nearby with winds of 160 mph. "They send roofs flying through the air, so we aren't going outside because it is too dangerous."

Phones and power were out in much of the Miskito Coast, making it difficult to find out what was happening in the remote, swampy area where many people depend on canoes for transport. Provincial health official Efrain Burgos warned that 18,000 people should find their own way to higher ground.

The only path to safety for many of those Indians was up rivers and across lakes that are too shallow for regular boats, but many lacked gasoline for long canoe journeys out. And damaging winds and floods could wipe out their crops of beans, rice, cassava and plantains

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Hurricane force winds will come a shore and last for a bit inland before the storm weakens. This area of Central America is very moutainous to the threat of flooding and mudslides is serious as I have stated previously.

Felix has begun to slow down a bit and this could be a problem. A faster forward speed will help to lessen the flooding as compared to a storm system that is barely moving. We here in Houston have first hand experience in what happens with a slow moving storm dumpin a bunch of rain on the area - even a non-tropical storm. Felix is currently moving at 16 MPH and is slowing down a bit.





Hurricane FELIX Public Advisory

Hurricane FELIX Forecast Discussion

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