| LA CEIBA, Honduras (AP) - Hurricane Felix roared ashore early Tuesday as a fearsome Category 5 storm - the first time in recorded history that two top-scale storms have made landfall in the same season. The hurricane hit near the Nicaragua-Honduras border, whipping metal rooftops through the air like razors and forcing thousands to flee coastal swampland.
Felix was the first of two major storms expected to make landfall on Tuesday: Off Mexico's Pacific coast, Hurricane Henriette gained force as it churned toward the upscale resort of Cabo San Lucas, popular with Hollywood stars and sea fishing enthusiasts.
In Nicaragua and Honduras, more than 14,000 people were evacuated just ahead of Felix's landfall, and three boats loaded with a total of 49 people sent out distress calls, civil defense official Rogelio Flores said in Nicaragua. Felix, which blew ashore with 160 mph winds, weakened to a Category 3 within hours.
‘‘The winds are horrible,'' Red Cross official Claudio Vanegas said by phone from the Nicaraguan town of Puerto Cabezas shortly after Felix struck land. ‘‘They send roofs flying through the air, so we aren't going outside because it is too dangerous.''
Phones and power were out in much of the Miskito Coast, making it difficult to find out what was happening in the remote, swampy area where many people depend on canoes for transport. Provincial health official
Rogelio Perez, a local emergency official, said the army was preparing to fly over the area and assess damage. However, emergency officials said they had no immediate reports of victims, and that most people in low-lying areas had been moved to shelters on higher ground.
‘‘Some refused to leave their homes, but most are safe,'' Vanegas said.
The only path to safety for many of Miskito Indians was up rivers and across lakes that are too shallow for regular boats, but many lacked gasoline for long canoe journeys out. And damaging winds and floods could wipe out their crops of beans, rice, cassava and plantains.
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