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Hurricane Felix becomes 'major' storm in CaribbeanWorld Updates
September 3, 2007
Hurricane Felix becomes 'major' storm in Caribbean
By Irasi Jimenez
WILLEMSTAD, Curacao (Reuters) - Gusty winds knocked down trees and stinging rain flooded streets in the Netherlands Antilles on Sunday as Hurricane Felix strengthened into a "major" storm north of the Dutch Caribbean islands.
On a similar though more southerly track toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as last month's powerful Hurricane Dean, which killed 27 people, Felix's top sustained winds had increased to 205 km per hour by 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Tropical Storm Felix is pictured moving west in the Caribbean Sea in this satellite photograph taken at 2015 GMT on September 1, 2007. (REUTERS/Handout)
That made the second hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic storm season, located around 790 km southeast of the Jamaican capital Kingston, a Category 3, or "major" hurricane capable of causing serious damage.
Hurricane Dean in mid-August became a rare Category 5 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, the most dangerous and potentially catastrophic of storms, like Katrina, Rita and Wilma in the devastating hurricane season of 2005.
There seemed nothing to prevent Felix from gaining more strength and the Miami-based hurricane center predicted it would become a Category 4 storm with winds in excess of 210 kph in 48 hours as it approached Honduras and Nicaragua.
The hurricane was moving toward the west-northwest at a brisk 30 kph. The Dutch authorities lifted hurricane watches for Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire but Jamaica and the Cayman Islands issued storm watches just in case.
None of the major computer models used to predict hurricane tracks took Felix through the Yucatan Channel into the Gulf of Mexico, where the United States gets a third of its domestic crude oil and 15 percent of its natural gas production.
But most of the models did take Felix across the Yucatan Peninsula into the Bay of Campeche, where Mexico has some major oil fields. Long-range forecasts are unreliable, however.
Energy markets were on alert, as they have been for all hurricanes since 2004 and 2005, when storms like Ivan, Katrina and Rita toppled oil platforms, severed pipelines and flooded refineries, sending crude prices to then record levels.
NO SERIOUS DAMAGE
Neither Curacao nor its sister island, Bonaire, reported serious damage or injuries but dawn broke to reveal flooded streets and toppled trees in Curacao.
"The local population and visitors remained in their homes and hotels overnight. No calls were received on the emergency line set up in preparation for the storm," Bonaire's Lt. Gov. Herbert Domacasse said in a statement.
In Curacao, unused to hurricanes because the storms normally track well to the north, supermarkets remained open late into the night to allow startled residents to stock up on emergency supplies.
The authorities opened shelters for people living in vulnerable areas, such as on the coastline, and the island's airport closed for several hours.
Felix's hurricane force winds extended out only 30 km and tropical storm force winds 185 km, meaning Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles experienced gusty conditions but not the full fury of the storm.
The 2007 hurricane season, expected to be a busy one, is approaching its peak. Most storms hit from Aug. 20 to mid-October, with Sept. 10 marking the statistical height of the season.
(Additional reporting by Michael Christie in Miami)
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The Inquisitor
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It looks like Honduras is in for a major hit and Belize as well. Mexico and Nicaragua as well as Guatemala may get slightly hit, but not compared to the other two. The US is spared once again.
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It was upgreded from cat 2 to cat 5.
May the damages be minimal.
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World Updates
September 4, 2007
Thousands flee Hurricane Felix in Central America
By Gustavo Palencia
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people fled low-lying areas on Central America's Caribbean coast on Monday to escape the powerful winds and torrential rains of approaching Hurricane Felix.
The highly dangerous Category 4 storm, due to make landfall on Tuesday morning, charged toward Nicaragua and Honduras with top sustained winds of 215 kph, provoking fears of a repeat of Hurricane Mitch, which killed some 10,000 people in Central America in 1998.
Tourists leave the Honduran island Roatan as Hurricane Felix approaches September 3, 2007. (REUTERS/Edgard Garrido)
"We are faced with a very serious threat to lives and property. The most important thing is that people pay heed to the call for evacuation so that we don't have to count bodies later," said Marco Burgos, head of Honduras' civil protection agency.
Hundreds of tourists flew to the Honduran mainland from beach and diving resorts on the Bay Islands.
Emergency services sailed Miskito Indians out of vulnerable, sparsely populated, coastal areas in Honduras, and Nicaragua said it would evacuate thousands more on its side of the swampy border area, dotted with lagoons and crocodile-infested rivers.
The Miskitos, who traditionally fish for turtles, formed a British protectorate until the 19th century. More than 35,000 of them live in Honduras, and over 100,000 in Nicaragua.
Felix, the second hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic season, had been a top-ranked Category 5 storm like last month's Hurricane Dean, which killed 27 people in the Caribbean and Mexico.
A Category 4 is also a major storm, capable of extensive damage and heavy flooding. Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history, was a Category 3 when it made landfall near New Orleans in 2005.
Category 5 hurricanes are considered rare. But there were four in the 2005 Atlantic season, and more of the potent storms this year could boost claims that global warming may produce stronger tropical cyclones.
RECORD GROWTH
Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at weather Web site weatherunderground.com, said Felix had set a speed record by taking just 51 hours to grow from a tropical depression to the Category 5 storm it became on Sunday.
Also on Monday, Tropical Storm Henriette headed across the eastern Pacific toward Mexico's Baja California peninsula at near hurricane strength after killing six people in the resort city of Acapulco during the weekend.
U.S. vacationers in Baja California were unfazed.
"If it's not really big it could be fun. It might be exciting," said Radek Kadoun, from Orange County, California.
London coffee futures ended higher, fueled by speculative buying on concern Felix might damage arabica coffee growing areas in Central America.
Memories of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 still strike fear into Honduras, one of the poor Central American countries worst hit. Some 10,000 people died in the region in mudslides and flooding.
"Besides asking God to prevent a catastrophe, we are buying water, food and medicine and boarding up windows," said Silvia Sierra, a resident of Roatan island off the Honduran coast.
In 1974, Hurricane Fifi killed up to 8,000 people in Honduras after grazing its Caribbean coast and dumping rain on the northern mountains.
Felix was about 405 km east of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the northern part of the border between Nicaragua and Honduras and speeding westward, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
It was expected to smack into the border area and then hit southern Belize and move through the Peten jungle region of Guatemala and into southern Mexico.
Whether Felix would be able to re-emerge over the Bay of Campeche, where Mexico has its major offshore oil fields, and strengthen again in the Gulf of Mexico was unclear.
The U.S. energy industry, skittish about storms since hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 toppled rigs, cut pipelines and flooded refineries, was monitoring Felix carefully.
But companies said they had yet to evacuate platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, where a third of U.S. domestic crude is produced and 15 percent of its natural gas.
(Additional reporting by Ivan Castro in Managua, and Michael Christie in Miami)
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The Inquisitor
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Most likely this is not the last hurricane of the season either. There's a good chance that another category 5 will be created before the season is over.
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