At least 18 killed in Nicaragua as Felix death toll rises

Hurricane Henriette hits Mexico for second time in two days with winds of up to 120 kph.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Henriette 298.88 (photo credit: AP)
Henriette 298.88
(photo credit: AP)
Doctors examined shipwreck survivors at a makeshift hospital on Nicaragua's storm-battered Caribbean coast as a civil defense official raised the toll from Hurricane Felix to at least 18 people killed and dozens more missing. Hurricane Henriette, which killed seven in its march up the Pacific Coast, hit Mexico for the second time in two days late Wednesday, slamming into its northwestern coast near Guaymas with winds of up to 120 kph. It also made landfall in Baja California on Tuesday. Schools and ports were closed and residents evacuated from low-lying areas on Mexico's mainland, but the storm was expected to weaken quickly over the desert before dumping a few inches of rain Thursday on New Mexico. Felix came ashore Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, killing at least 18 people across Nicaragua, said Alvaro Rivas, a spokesman for Nicaragua's Civil Defense Department. He said at least 10 people were missing in and around Puerto Cabezas and more than 50 in the Matagalpa province in the north.