MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hurricane Felix called 'potentially catastrophic' aims for Central America

Aruba after Hurricane Felix passed over the island

Potentially catastrophic Hurricane Felix is blowing quickly westward across the Caribbean Sea towards Honduras and Nicaragua. The National Hurricane Center in Miami measures the storm's maximum sustained winds at 165 miles per hour with higher gusts.

After drenching the islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire on the weekend, toppling trees and power lines and forcing thousands of tourists to take refuge in the hotels, Hurricane Felix strengthened quickly to the most dangerous class of storm, a category 5. Within hours of forming a tropical depression in the Atlantic early Saturday, Felix became a tropical storm, and within the span of a day it blew through categories 1, 2, 3, and 4. By Sunday night it had hit the maximum Category 5 and was howling across the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. A tropical storm watch remains in effect for Grand Cayman and also for Jamaica where more than 1.3 million voters head to the polls in a general election today. Felix is expected to hit the coast of Honduras on Tuesday before blowing into Belize on Wednesday. The hurricane now is moving westward at 21 miles per hour and the National Hurricane Center predicts that pace and direction will continue for the next 24 hours. The center of Felix will be near the coasts of extreme northeastern Nicaragua and northeastern Honduras early on Tuesday morning, forecasters say. The National Hurricane Center says, "Although Felix is an extremely powerful hurricane, it has a very small wind field. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 30 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 115 miles." Reports from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane hunter aircraft "indicate that Felix continues to rapidly strengthen," the National Hurricane Center said in its latest public advisory. The government of Honduras has issued a hurricane warning from Limon eastward to the Honduras-Nicaragua border and a hurricane watch from Limon west to the Guatemala border. Hurricane conditions are also possible over extreme northeastern Nicaragua. The Honduran Permanent Commission on Emergencies, Copeco, is expecting high winds and torrential rains from early Tuesday through Thursday. Today, Copeco is activating the logistics, communications and rescue groups and getting shelters ready in case it is necessary to evacuate people in the resort city of La Ceiba. Copeco's North Zone commissioner Baldemar Alvarado warns that the speed of Felix is faster and the wind gusts stronger than those of Hurricane Dean in August. Felix appears to be on the same trajectory as disastrous Hurricane Mitch that lashed the country in October 1998, killing thousands and damaging tourist areas that still have not completely recovered. Felix is also predicted to bring heavy rains to northern Colombia and Venezuela.