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Strengthening Hurricane Beta takes aim at Central America

A boat with evacuees from Cayo Miskitu arrives at the wharf of Puerto Cabezas, 335 miles northeast of Managua, Nicaragua, on Saturday. Nicaragua issued a hurricane warning for its Caribbean coast and began evacuating thousands of people. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Marko Alvarez Associated Press
A boat with evacuees from Cayo Miskitu arrives at the wharf of Puerto Cabezas, 335 miles northeast of Managua, Nicaragua, on Saturday. Nicaragua issued a hurricane warning for its Caribbean coast and began evacuating thousands of people. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

SAN ANDRES ISLAND, Colombia – A strengthening Hurricane Beta headed for Central America’s Caribbean coast Saturday after lashing the small Colombian island of Providencia with harsh winds, heavy rains and high surf.

Nicaraguan troops evacuated thousands of people from low-lying areas as forecasters predicted the Category 1 hurricane could become a Category 3 storm before reaching the mainland today, near the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. It was not expected to hit the United States.

In Honduras, intense wind and rain were hitting the coast and President Ricardo Maduro declared a maximum state of alert. He reminded people of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which stalled over Honduras with 120 mph winds, sweeping away bridges, flooding neighborhoods and killing thousands.

Several people sustained minor injuries, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said, without providing an exact figure. “The calming news is that there were no fatalities,” Uribe said Saturday in Bogota before boarding a plane for the region buffeted by Beta, the record 13th hurricane of this year’s Atlantic storm season.

Late Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said the storm was about 75 miles east of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, moving westward at about 5 mph. Its maximum sustained winds were around 90 mph.

The storm began pummeling mountainous Providencia late Friday, tearing roofs off wooden homes and causing hundreds of people to move to brick shelters in the highlands. Electricity and telephone service were knocked out for the 5,000 people on the Manhattan-size island.

In Nicaragua, troops evacuated 10,000 people from the far eastern coastal port of Cabo de Gracias a Dios, and from along the River Coco, both on the Honduras border, said Nicaragua’s national civil defense director, Lt. Col. Mario Perez Cassar.

Residents of low-lying coastal communities, mainly Indians, moved into schools and a hospital evacuated patients. People lined up at shops to buy supplies as strong winds and heavy rain buffeted Puerto Cabezas, where 32,000 residents prepared for the storm.

The National Hurricane Center warned that Beta could bring a storm surge up to 13 feet when it made landfall and said 10 to 15 inches of rain could fall in Central America.