Hurricane Felix gathers strength

Hurricane Felix gathered strength early today and became a Category 2 storm, the US National Hurricane Center said. It was forecast to pass just north of the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba.

Felix was upgraded from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday evening, becoming the second Atlantic hurricane of the season. By today, it had sustained maximum winds of about 100mph and threatened to become a major hurricane as the day went on, the centre said.

A tropical storm warning and hurricane watch were in effect for Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

Aruba’s airport was closed until Felix passes, employee Franklin Yarzagarag said.

At 5am EDT (9am Irish Time), Felix was centred about 85 miles east-north-east of Aruba and was moving westward at about 18mph, the hurricane centre said.

Felix was changing directions constantly after nightfall and wobbling, making the storm’s impact hard to predict, Curacao Lt. Gov. Lizanne Richards-Dindial said at a midnight news conference.

“Felix is playing with us,” she said.

Richards-Dindial said any parties on Curacao should end by 2am and said casinos should close at that time.

“This is a measure for your own protection,” she said.

On Saturday, Felix brought heavy rains and strong winds to Grenada as a tropical storm, snapping small boats loose from their moorings, temporarily knocking out local radio and TV stations and toppling utility lines. No injuries were reported.

In Aruba, about 20 miles off Venezuela’s coast, a line of jittery residents and hotel employees snaked through a hardware store in the capital, Oranjestad, to purchase supplies.

“This kind of weather doesn’t usually make it to Aruba, so people are definitely worried,” store cashier Mark Werleman said.

Jamaica’s government also issued a tropical storm. The island was battered by Hurricane Dean on August 19.

Felix was on track to pass near Honduran resort islands on Tuesday and plow into Belize on Wednesday.

On Honduras’ Roatan Island, home to luxury resorts and pristine reefs, the weather was normal and guests were simply enjoying their vacations, Mayan Princess Beach Resort & Spa employee Arturo Rich said.

“We aren’t evacuating people yet, but maybe on Monday” as the storm gets closer, he said.

Felix ripped roofs off at least two homes and destroyed a popular concert venue in the southern Caribbean island of Grenada. Orchards were left in ruin.

Jess Charles, 29, said he and his family hunkered down in their house in the town of Calliste as the storm’s winds howled outside.

“It was really very, very scary,” Charles told The Associated Press. “The wind was blowing so hard we thought our roof might come off.”

Felix also spawned thunderstorms and downed trees in Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Those islands reported only minor damage.

Rebecca Waddington, a meteorologist at the hurricane centre, advised employees of oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico to monitor Felix’s progress and said the storm could reach the area in four to five days.

Along the Pacific coast of Mexico, meanwhile, authorities discontinued storm warnings as Tropical Storm Henriette moved out to sea.

Henriette dumped heavy rain on western Mexico earlier, loosening a giant boulder that smashed into a home in Acapulco, killing an adult and two children and injuring two other people.

A teenager and her two brothers were also killed when a landslide slammed into their house in a poor neighbourhood of the resort city.