Season's record-setting 13th hurricane hits Nicaragua

PUERTO CABEZAS, Nicaragua -- Hurricane Beta pounded Nicaragua's Caribbean coast with heavy rains and powerful winds Sunday as thousands of people rode out the storm in boarded-up homes or government shelters.\nThe storm came ashore near the remote town of La Barra as a category 2 hurricane with 105-mph winds. But it weakened to a category 1 with 90-mph winds as it moved inland, dumping up to 15 inches of rain, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.\nWhile powerful, Beta was a small hurricane, with hurricane force winds extending outward only up to 15 miles, the \ncenter said.\nAt 10 a.m., the storm's center was about 50 miles north of the coastal city of Bluefields. It was moving toward the southwest at nearly 7 mph.\nBefore reaching Central America, the record 13th hurricane of this year's Atlantic storm season lashed the Colombian island of Providencia with heavy winds, torrential rains and high surf. At least 30 people were injured, Colombian Civil Defense Col. Eugenio Alarcòn said.\nThe slow-moving storm battered the mountainous island for more than 12 hours, damaging more than 300 wooden homes and buildings, most with their roofs torn apart, he said. Most of the 5,000 islanders found safety at brick shelters in the hills.\nIn Nicaragua, President Enrique Bolaños declared a maximum "red alert" late Saturday, ordering some 45,000 people from the port regions to stay in their homes or hole up in one of the 15 shelters provided by the government.\nEarlier in the day, soldiers evacuated 10,000 people from the far eastern coastal port of Cabo de Gracias a Dios and from along the River Coco, both on the Honduras border, said Nicaragua's national civil defense director, Lt. Col. Mario Pérez Cassar.\nThe Civil Defense Department sent 100 army rescue specialists along with various land and water vehicles. A tent hospital also was set up, while universities and public schools were closed and converted into shelters. Flights to the Nicaraguan islands Islas del Maíz were canceled.\nResidents of low-lying neighborhoods in Puerto Cabeza were taken to provisional shelters on higher ground as heavy rains and wind began to batter the coast, flooding the neighborhoods. Businesses raised food prices in response to the heavy demand, while bottled water supplies ran out. Authorities threatened to sanction price gougers.\nMayor Gustavo Ramos said 10 people were reported missing after their boat disappeared in the storm while trying to escape Beta.\nIn Honduras, the government ended its hurricane alert for the coast north of the Nicaraguan border.\nOn Saturday, President Ricardo Maduro had declared a maximum state of alert as authorities evacuated more than 50 people because of flooding in a coastal city also known as Gracias a Dios, on the border.\nMaduro stressed the importance of being prepared to avoid a tragedy like the one caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. That storm stalled over Honduras with 120-mph winds, sweeping away bridges, flooding neighborhoods and killing thousands.\nBeta, which was not expected to hit the United States, was the 13th hurricane this year, more than any Atlantic season on record. This season has also seen 23 named storms, more than at any point since record-keeping began in 1851. The previous record of 21 was set in 1933.