MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nicaragua recovers after deadly Hurricane Felix

Pte. Ortega launched an aid operation and has called for outside help.

Central America is still in shock from the death and destruction that slammed ashore with Hurricane Felix earlier this week.

The storm's death toll on Friday morning reached at least 100 in Nicaragua and Honduras combined, according to government officials. Felix made landfall on Tuesday as the most dangerous on the hurricane scale, a Category 5. Dozens more are still reported as missing. Emergency assistance is being provided to thousands of people who lost their homes in the storm or the flooding and mudslides that followed. More remote regions are proving difficult to reach, officials say. Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Henriette has now moved far inland after lashing the western coast of Mexico. Heavy rains were reported Thursday in Arizona and New Mexico. After Henriette came ashore as a hurricane earlier this week, nine deaths were reported in Mexico. Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega toured areas hit by the hurricane, and said relief aid had begun arriving from abroad. Ortega said international aid was coming from several nations that are sending airplanes with supplies, including Venezuela and Honduras. U.S. military officials said they are working with Nicaraguan officials to provide assistance. The Pentagon said an assessment team had arrived in Puerto Cabezas, and two naval ships were standing by to provide any emergency aid the country needs. U.S.-based relief group CARE International said it has a team in Puerto Cabezas to distribute food and clean water to 20,000 people in the area. CARE spokesman Rick Perera said aid supplies are needed to prevent serious health problems among survivors. "If we do not get clean water to people there is a chance of outbreak of diseases," he said. "One of our staff in one of the most affected small villages said children are already starting to have diarrhea from drinking contaminated water." The latest storm triggered memories of Hurricane Mitch, which killed at least 10,000 people in Honduras and Nicaragua in 1998