Felix becomes Category 5 hurricane, heads toward Central America

Hurricane Felix rapidly strengthened into a dangerous Category 5 storm and churned on Monday toward Central America, where forecasters said it could arrive as a "potentially catastrophic" storm. Tourists jammed the airports seeking flights out.

Felix was packing winds of up to 165 mph as it headed west, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. It could hit Honduras' coastline on Tuesday before slamming into Belize, where many residents were still cleaning up from last month's Hurricane Dean.

"As it stands, we're still thinking that it will be a potentially catastrophic system in the early portions of this week," said Dave Roberts, a hurricane specialist at the center in Miami.

Tourists filled Honduran airports seeking flights out before the storm, but some locals said they would ride it out.

"The tourists, they're evacuating. We're staying here," said Estella Marazzito, who works at a real estate company on the Caribbean resort island of Roatan.

"At this moment, it's what they call the calm before the storm. There isn't even a breeze," she said, but added, "We know it's a tremendous hurricane that's coming."

In Belize, residents stocked up on water and food, and nailed boards over windows. People in low-lying areas moved to higher ground.

And many were still cleaning up from last month's Hurricane Dean, which caused an estimated $100 million in damage, mostly to agriculture.

"I stopped cleaning debris and trees from my yard (because it) might just get messed up again," said Wayne Leonardo.

Hurricane warnings were issued for large stretches of the Nicaraguan and Honduran coasts, and Belize and Guatemala issued hurricane watches.

On Sunday, Felix toppled trees and flooded some homes on the Dutch islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire in the southern Caribbean. Heavy rains and winds caused scattered power outages and forced thousands of tourists to take refuge in hotels, but it did less damage than feared as the storm's outer bands grazed the tiny islands.

"Thankfully we didn't get a very bad storm. My dog slept peacefully through the night," said Siomara Albertus, a Bonaire medical administrator who waited out Felix at home with her Labrador retriever.

In Aruba, there was also little visible damage, although at least one catamaran snapped off its mooring, a house was damaged by a downed tree and power was temporarily knocked out in a northern town.

Felix is the second Atlantic hurricane of the season following last month's Hurricane Dean, which killed at least 28 people as ploughed through the Caribbean and then slammed into Mexico as a Category 5 storm.

At 11 a.m. EDT Monday, Felix was centered about 265 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica, and about 365 miles east of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua-Honduras border. It was moving west at about 21 mph, the hurricane center said.

The hurricane center said Felix could dump up to 12 inches of rain in isolated parts of northern Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua, possibly bringing flash floods and mudslides.

It was projected to slash across Guatemala's Peten region and southern Mexico, then emerge in the southern Gulf of Mexico, an area dotted with major oil drilling platforms.

Off Mexico's Pacific coast, meanwhile, Tropical Storm Henriette was forecast to strengthen to a hurricane before hitting the resort-studded tip of the Baja California Peninsula on Tuesday. Mexico issued a hurricane warning for southern Baja, including Cabo San Lucas.

With maximum sustained winds at near 70 mph, Henriette has been lashing the western coast of Mexico, causing flooding and landslides that killed six in Acapulco. Three were killed when a giant boulder fell on their home, and three more died when a landslide slammed into their house.

At 8 a.m. EDT, the storm was centered about 225 miles south-southeast of the tip of the peninsula.

Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist with the hurricane center, warned that both Felix and Henriette could shift course and that people in the general areas should remain alert even if they aren't in the storms' direct paths.

"Even if the forecast is perfect, that's only forecasting where the center 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."

She said workers on oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico in particular should monitor Felix, which could reach the area by week's end.

___

Associated Press Writer Linda Straker in St. George's, Grenada, and David McFadden in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov