MIAMI, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - Hurricane Felix, which slammed into Nicaragua on Tuesday, is the 31st Atlantic storm known to have reached the topmost category five on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, but the second this year alone.
It packed maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometers (160 miles) per hour, with higher gusts as it roared ashore in extreme northeastern Nicaragua.
It had reached category five on the Saffir-Simpson scale on Sunday, when it strengthened from a category two in a record 15 hours, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC.) It dropped to category four on Monday but regained strength just before landfall.
Only 30 previous Atlantic hurricanes are reliably known to have reached that degree of power, starting with a 1928 storm nicknamed Okeechobee, which left a trail of death and devastation in the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Florida.
Just last month, Hurricane Dean slammed ashore in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as a category five hurricane. Its landfall in a sparsely populated area on Mexico's Caribbean coast averted what could have been a major disaster, but the storm did leave 30 people dead during its rampage.
Also among the storms to reach category five was Hurricane Mitch, which in 1998 devastated the same central American area now threatened by Felix.
While Mitch made landfall as a category one hurricane, its slow motion meant it dropped massive amounts of rain over Honduras and Nicaragua, causing catastrophic flooding and becoming one of the deadliest hurricanes in history, with more than 9,000 people dead and as many reported missing.
In 2005, a record four Atlantic hurricanes reached category five, including Hurricane Katrina that left 1,500 people dead in New Orleans and along the US Gulf coast. Katrina made landfall as a category three hurricane, with sustained winds of 205 kilometers (125 miles) per hour.
A category five hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale packs maximum sustained winds of over 249 kilometers (155 miles) per hour. The NHC calls such hurricanes "potentially catastrophic."
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Received by NewsEdge Insight: 09/04/2007 08:18:50
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