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Felix declared Category 5 hurricane

Sep 03 2007

Felix declared Category 5 hurricane

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SCI-TECH

By Agencies

Felix is the Atlantic storm season's second hurricane; Dean claimed 25 lives last month [AFP]

Hurricane Felix has been declared a Category 5 storm – the most severe kind – a day after it lashed a cluster of Dutch Caribbean islands.

Felix was on a path towards Central America and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, packing winds of up to 270kph by nightfall, the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said.

It is expected to hit Honduras and Guatemala over the next few days.

On Sunday, Felix struck Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire as a Category 4 storm with rains and heavy winds, toppling trees, causing power outages and flooding homes and streets.

Possible catastrophic damage

Last month Hurricane Dean, the first in the Atlantic hurricane season, turned into a Category 5 storm, killing at least 27 people along a similar route.

Category 5 hurricanes are rare and are capable of causing catastrophic damage.

Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale

Category 1 – Winds 119-153kph
Minor coastal flooding and structural damage

Category 2 – Winds 154-177kph
Damage to roofs, mobile homes and shanty houses. Some trees uprooted. Small boats may break moorings

Category 3 – Winds 178-209kph
Damage to buildings, mobile homes destroyed. Severe flooding near to coast

Category 4 – Winds 210-249kph
Major structural damage, roofs destroyed. Storm surge around 5m requiring widespread evacuation of coastal areas

Category 5 – Winds 249kph or higher
Serious damage to all but strongest buildings. Severe flooding far inland, all trees blown down. Storm surge up to 6m above normal

Forecasters said that after passing Curacao and Aruba, the storm was expected to spin over the open waters of the central Caribbean, before skirting Honduras's northern coastline on Tuesday and ploughing into Belize on Wednesday.

Residents of Curacao, unfamiliar to hurricanes which normally track further to the north, stocked up on emergency supplies as supermarkets remained open late into the night.

The authorities opened shelters for coastal residents and closed the island's airport for several hours.

However, neither Curacao nor its sister island Bonaire reported casualties.

Herbert Domacasse, Bonaire's lieutenant governor, said the local population and visitors remained in their homes and hotels overnight.

"No calls were received on the emergency line set up in preparation for the storm," he said.

Hurricane watches in Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire were lifted but storm watches were up for Jamaica and Grand Cayman although forecasters expected Felix to keep well to the south as it moved west-northwest.

Oil watch

Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist at the hurricane centre, advised employees of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to monitor Felix's progress.

She said the storm could reach the area - where a third of US domestic crude oil and 15 per cent of natural gas production is located - in four to five days.

Energy markets have watched tropical storms and hurricanes since the Atlantic hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, when hurricanes Ivan, Katrina and Rita disrupted supplies.

The 2005 season experienced four category 5 hurricanes including Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

Most storms hit from August 20 to mid-October, with September 10 marking the statistical height of the season.