Hurricane Beta lashes Nicaragua

PUERTO CABEZAS – 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 1185 kph, and forecasters said its eye is 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 6 in the morning.We don’t have the means to do it,” President Enrique Bolanos said in a late-night television and radio address.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.- Nampa-ReutersWith 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 6 in the morning.We don’t have the means to do it,” President Enrique Bolanos said in a late-night television and radio address.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.- Nampa-Reuters