Beta upgraded to hurricane, batters Caribbean isle

By Cyntia Barrera Diaz

PUERTO CABEZAS, Nicaragua (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Beta was upgraded to a hurricane on Saturday as it punished a small Caribbean island with fierce winds and hundreds of Miskito Indians streamed into shelters in a sleepy Nicaraguan port to escape exposed villages.

Beta, the latest cyclone in a record-breaking season, whipped Colombia's Providencia island with winds nearing 130 km/hr as it inched its way toward Central America.

Rescue workers prepares medical supplies for potential victims of Beta hurricane in Managua October 28, 2005. Rain and wind from Tropical Storm Beta lashed Caribbean islands off Nicaragua's jungle-clad coast on Thursday and was forecast to strengthen to a hurricane and dump water onto already sodden hills island. (REUTERS/Guillermo Florez/La Pren)

The wind ripped roofs off homes on the island, which along with neighbouring San Andres, was once a favoured hideaway of famous 17th-century Welsh pirate Henry Morgan. No deaths were reported.

In Nicaragua, barefooted fishing families carrying clothing in bags and furniture on their backs fled coastal hamlets to seek protection in Puerto Cabezas, where schools doubled as storm shelters.

"We heard on the radio we had to leave," said fisherman Bismark Williams, 35, who was picked up by a boat under government orders to evacuate as many people as possible from the coast.

Beta was upgraded early Saturday to a Category 1 hurricane and was forecast to strengthen further in the next 24 hours and could become a strong Category 2 before it makes landfall along the east coast of Nicaragua on Sunday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

"We think 600-700 people have already come in, and there are more boats on their way," said Orlando Aberlado, in charge of deploying the fishing craft used in the evacuation.

Small fishing villages populated by Indian tribes like the Miskitos and descendants of escaped African slaves are strung along the Caribbean coast of Honduras and Nicaragua.

It is one of the region's most isolated areas and transport is often by plane or boat along muddy rivers.

"We are considering evacuating some 8,000 people from different places along the coast," said Col. Mario Perez-Cassar, the head of Nicaragua's civil defense.

Puerto Cabezas' hospital stocked up with medicines for pneumonia in case slow-moving Beta cuts off the low-lying area with its strong winds and torrential rains.

A rainbow arched over the town of 30,000 people as heavy rainfall temporarily eased on Friday evening.

A record number of cyclones have hit the Atlantic-Caribbean area this hurricane season and residents were concerned after Hurricane Wilma wrecked Mexico's Caribbean beach resorts, flooded Cuba and pounded southern Florida this month.

Another hurricane, Stan, killed as many as 2,000 people, mostly Guatemalan highland villagers, by deluging large areas of Central America with heavy rain early in October.

MUDSLIDE WORRY

"Beta is expected to produce rainfall totals of 25-38 cm across northeastern Honduras, Nicaragua and San Andres and Providencia with isolated maximum amounts of 50 cm possible," the Hurricane Center said.

Authorities in Honduras were on alert for mudslides and flooding from rivers when the rain starts to fall hard.

"We are working on the worst-case scenario and sending food, medicine and road-repairing equipment and getting shelters ready in schools and other public buildings for possible evacuations," said Juan Ramon Salinas, head of operations at the Honduran civil protection agency.

Governments fear landslides if the storm moves farther inland and maintains its strength. Mudslides are usually the most deadly effect of hurricanes in Central America, where many poor people live in flimsy shacks on the sides of hills or mountains.

At 5 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT), Beta was about 210 km east of Puerto Cabezas and moving northwest at near 5 kph. The hurricane could become stationary at times and its path erratic, the Hurricane Center said.

(Additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa)

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