Hurricane Felix roared ashore early Tuesday as a fearsome Category 5 storm. 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.
On the Nicaraguan coast, 2,000 people were evacuated before the hurricane blew roofs off homes, blocked roads and knocked out telephone service, said Nicaragua’s Civil Defense chief, Rogelio Flores. But many other Miskito Indians refused to leave. The newspaper La Prensa reported that 20 fishermen were missing.
Communication to the area was largely cut off, making it difficult to find out what was happening as the storm’s winds began hitting the remote, swampy area, much of it reachable only by canoe. The Nicaraguan government sent in some soldiers before the storm hit, but was preparing to send in more help once the storm passed.