Hurricane Beta peters out to tropical storm

Hurricane Beta roared ashore along Nicaragua’s remote Caribbean coastline today, ripping off roofs, toppling trees, provoking floods, and causing four rivers to overflow in Honduras before weakening to a tropical storm.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries.

Beta hit land near the remote town of Sandy Bay Sirpi, 00 miles northeast of the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, as a category 2 hurricane with 105mph winds, according to the National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

By this afternoon, it had weakened to a tropical storm with 65mph winds as it swept across Nicaragua, dumping up to 15 inches of rain. Beta was expected to continue losing strength as it moved farther inland during the course of the day, and was forecast to weaken to a tropical depression overnight.

Forecasters had predicted the storm would touch down in the far northeastern region of Nicaragua, prompting officials to evacuate thousands of people from the far eastern coastal port of Cabo de Gracias a Dios, and from along the River Coco, both on the Honduras border.

But early today, Beta took an unexpected turn south, and headed for Nicaragua’s central coastline.

Jack Howard, the mayor of the central coastal town of Laguna de Perlas, told local television that 700 people were trapped in the coastal town of Tasbapauni, separated by a lagoon from the rest of the mainland, because they lacked fuel for their boats.

An additional 10 people were reported missing after their boat disappeared as they tried to escape the storm in the northern coastal city of Puerto Cabezas, said the mayor of that city, Gustavo Ramos.

Army chief Gen Omar Halleslevens told a news conference in the capital that Beta had destroyed or damaged some homes.

However “no one was injured, no one was killed, thank God,” President Enrique Bolanos said. “We are prepared from coast to coast.”

In Honduras, authorities evacuated more than 7,800 people from 50 communities along the northeastern Atlantic coast after four rivers overflowed due to heavy rains dumped by Hurricane Beta, said the country’s disaster-response chief, Hugo Arevalo.

Strong winds from the storm had knocked down signs, fences, trees and electricity and telephone poles, cutting off power and communication in hundreds of communities, while at least two highways were blocked by a flood and a landslide, respectively, Arevalo said.

The Cangrejal River flooded numerous towns on its banks near La Ceiba, on the northern Atlantic coast 220 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, said regional disaster response co-ordinator Abraham Mejia.

Honduran President Ricardo Maduro said he had requested the use of helicopters from the US air base at Palmerola, to ferry supplies to flooded areas.

He said the government already had begun distributing about 1,800 metric tons of food donated by the United Nations.

The good news is that the Hurricane Centre predicted the storm would dissipate over Nicaragua tomorrow without its eye ever passing into Honduras.