Potentially catastrophic Hurricane Felix is blowing quickly westward across the Caribbean Sea towards Honduras and Nicaragua. The National Hurricane Center in Miami measures the storm's maximum sustained winds at 165 miles per hour with higher gusts.
After drenching the islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire on the weekend, toppling trees and power lines and forcing thousands of tourists to take refuge in the hotels, Hurricane Felix strengthened quickly to the most dangerous class of storm, a category 5.
The hurricane now is moving westward at 21 miles per hour and the National Hurricane Center predicts that pace and direction will continue for the next 24 hours. The center of Felix will be near the coasts of extreme northeastern Nicaragua and northeastern Honduras early on Tuesday morning, forecasters say.
Reports from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hurricane hunter aircraft "indicate that Felix continues to rapidly strengthen," the National Hurricane Center said in its latest public advisory.
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