Felix roared ashore early Tuesday in northeastern Nicaragua as a Category 5 hurricane but later weakened to a tropical storm. Meanwhile, Hurricane Henriette made for a direct hit on the Cabos resorts of Mexico's Baja California peninsula.
Felix, which at its peak sustained winds of 260 km/h, ripped off metal rooftops along the Nicaragua/Honduras border.
But by 10 p.m. ET, the governments of Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize had discontinued their hurricane and tropical storm warnings for their coasts.
About 1,000 people were evacuated, including tourists, from the Honduran island of Roatan. Another 1,000 people were removed from low-lying coastal areas and smaller islands in the area.
The coast is home to thousands of stranded Miskito Indians who live in wooden shack communities that officials feared would be devastated by the storm surge.
"This motion is expected to continue with a gradual decrease in forward speed during the next 24 hours," said the Hurricane Center. "This will bring the center of Felix through Honduras on Wednesday."
Nearly 5,000 people fled Belize in fear of Felix, leaving the crime-ridden prone to lootings.
"(Thieves) focus on the people who go to higher ground and leave their property unsecure, so that's the way they take advantage of it," Const. Brenton Garcia of the Belize Police Force told 麻豆影视.
But as the winds died down Tuesday, many residents returned home and took down the boards that covered their windows and doors.
"Yesterday we put them up, today we couldn't take the heat and we had to take them down," said Stephen Clare.
Felix is on the same path as 1998's Hurricane Mitch that killed nearly 11,000 people and left more than 8,000 missing, mostly in Honduras and Nicaragua.
Henriette
Meanwhile, off Mexico's Pacific coast, Hurricane Henriette bore down on popular Baja resorts with top winds of 137 km/h is moving towards the upscale resorts of Cabo San Lucas.
Residents and tourists woke Tuesday to dangerous winds and a closed airport. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the center would likely hit the tip of the peninsula Tuesday afternoon.
Already, 15-foot waves sent plumes of whitewater 30 feet into the air at the main Cabo San Lucas marina, and waves hit the walls of beachfront hotels. One restaurant owner said he lost 40 per cent of his beach before the storm even hit. Catamarans crashed against their moorings, rain fell in sheets and palm trees bent in the wind.
Unprecedented
This is only the fourth Atlantic hurricane season since 1886 with more than one Category 5 hurricane.
Twin Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes making landfall on the same day is unprecedented, according to National Hurricane Center records dating back to 1949. The closest comparison happened at 5 a.m. on Aug. 24, 1992, when Hurricane Andrew devastated southern Florida 23 hours after Hurricane Lester hit Baja California, Mexico.
With a report by CTV's Lisa LaFlamme in Belize and files from The Associated Press
