Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua – A day after Hurricane Felix wrecked villages on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, the death toll rose to at least 18, with dozens more missing.
Far to the northwest, Hurricane Henriette plowed into Mexico for the second time in two days, making landfall shortly before 7 p.m. MDT near the port city of Guaymas with top sustained winds of 75 mph. Later, Henriette was downgraded to a tropical storm with winds of 65 mph. Seven deaths were reported from the Pacific storm, which hit Baja California on Tuesday.
Felix came ashore Tuesday in Nicaragua as a Category 5 tempest packing 160-mph winds and heavy rains that caused mudslides, destroyed homes, uprooted trees and devastated villages.
Wednesday night, a Nicaraguan Civil Defense Department spokesman said the confirmed death toll had doubled to 18. He said more than 50 people were missing in Matagalpa province and another 10 around the hard-hit city of Puerto Cabezas.
The dead included a man who drowned when his boat capsized, a woman killed when a tree fell on her house and a newborn who died shortly after birth because her mother couldn’t get medical attention.
Felix wiped out crops and damaged most of the 70 tons of food and emergency goods that had been flown in before the storm.
