NICARAGUA: Hurricane Beta strengthened to a dangerous Category 3 early yesterday as it battered Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, where troops tried to rush thousands of people into shelters to escape its fierce winds and rains.
Beta carried winds of 185km/h (115mph) and forecasters said its eye was expected to hit the jungle coast in the next few hours.
With the storm already lashing the normally sleepy fishing town of Puerto Cabezas, officials raced to find solid shelters for its residents and Miskito Indian evacuees from small fishing villages along the coast.
"It is impossible to think you could evacuate 50,000 people between now and six in the morning. We don't have the means to do it," President Enrique Bolanos said in a late-night television and radio address. "We are doing everything humanly possible."
Defence minister Avil Ramirez said the army had food and medicines in place but that it was impossible to evacuate this remote town and he warned many homes might not survive.
"Puerto Cabezas has simple wooden homes and, faced with these wind speeds, unfortunately no one can be prepared." Plastic sheets were nailed over windows at one concrete shelter where 53 patients from the town's only hospital had been moved for their safety.
"Most of the patients are stable," said Sonia Downs, a 53-year-old nurse in charge at the shelter as she prepared for a sleepless night. "We have basic medicines." Beta is the 23rd named storm of this year's relentless, record-breaking Atlantic-Caribbean season.
Nicaragua and neighbouring Honduras feared the slow-moving storm's rains would trigger mudslides in mountainous areas further inland. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed an estimated 10,000 people across Central America.
As Beta approached, barefoot fishing families fled from coastal hamlets to seek protection in Puerto Cabezas, where schools were turned into storm shelters.
But some families along the coast refused to leave their flimsy wooden shacks even as Beta began pounding the area, making palm trees dance in its wild winds.
"I'm not afraid, you should always trust in God. He is the only one who can decide your fate," said Bartolo Panting, a local builder. "I'm not moving until it's really raining."
Small fishing villages populated by Indian tribes like the Miskitos and descendants of escaped African slaves are strung along the Caribbean coast, one of Central America's most isolated areas.
Residents are traditionally wary of outsiders and officials were unable to persuade many to leave their homes.
Soldiers evacuated 170 people from one coastal village but 30 others refused to leave. "These people do not believe in danger until they really feel it," said Col Mario Perez-Cassar, the head of Nicaragua's civil defence.
At 4am the storm was about 85km (70 miles) south of Puerto Cabezas and moving at 13km/h (8mph).
The US National Hurricane Centre said Beta was expected to weaken steadily as it moves inland.
It warned of storm surge flooding of up to five metres (17 feet) and said rains of 25-38cm (10-15in) would hit Nicaragua and Honduras with isolated maximum amounts of 64cm (25in) possible. A Category 3 storm can cause extensive damage.
Honduras declared a national emergency and prepared to evacuate up to 125,000 people.
In the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, and the industrial city of San Pedro Sula, residents rushed to supermarkets to buy basics and long lines formed at petrol stations.
Beta earlier ripped roofs off homes on Colombia's small Caribbean island of Providencia, which along with neighbouring San Andres was once a favoured hideaway of 17th century Welsh pirate Henry Morgan. No deaths were reported.
Earlier this month Hurricane Stan killed up to 2,000 people in Central America.
Last week Hurricane Wilma wrecked Mexico's Caribbean beach resorts, flooded Cuba and pounded southern Florida.