Nicaragua and Mexico launched major relief operations on Thursday after two hurricanes killed at least 40 people with the toll expected to rise.

Nicaragua surveyed the destruction left by Hurricane Felix that struck the Central American country on Tuesday.
Mexico’s Pacific coast was hit on Wednesday by Hurricane Henriette, which left two people dead and several injured.

An aircraft with tonnes of food, blankets and medication landed late on Wednesday in Bilwi, the capital of Nicaragua’s impoverished North Atlantic Autonomous Region of 200,000 people.

The World Food Program me delivered 4.5 tonnes of aid to the Nicaraguan government, while neighbouring El Salvador and Honduras also sent assistance.

 The population worst hit by the storm, which has since dissipated, was without help for 24 hours. Some 50,000 people were displaced by Felix.

Jazmina Lagos cried over the body of her mother, Antonia, who died when her fragile home in the nearby village of Betania crumbled under the force of Felix’s 260 kilometres per hour winds.

“What a tragedy, what a horrible day,” wailed Lagos, whose village of 1,000 Miskito Indians was flooded. Search teams deploying along the coast feared they would find more death and destruction as they made their way to isolated communities whose wooden shacks offered no protection from the hurricane’s powerful winds.