CARIBBEAN Hurricane Beta aims for Central America

Amid intense wind and rain, Honduras declared a maximum state of alert.
SAN ANDRES ISLAND, Colombia (AP) -- A strengthening Hurricane Beta headed for Central America's Caribbean coast Saturday after lashing the small Colombian island of Providencia with harsh winds, heavy rains and high surf.
Nicaraguan troops evacuated thousands of people from low-lying areas as forecasters predicted the Category 1 hurricane could become a Category 3 storm before reaching the mainland today, near the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. It was not expected to hit the United States.
In Honduras, intense wind and rain were hitting the coast, and President Ricardo Maduro declared a maximum state of alert. He reminded people of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which stalled over Honduras with 120 mph winds, sweeping away bridges, flooding neighborhoods and killing thousands.
No fatalities on island
Several people sustained minor injuries, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said, without providing an exact figure. The calming news is that there were no fatalities, Uribe said Saturday in Bogota before boarding a plane for the region buffeted by Beta, the record 13th hurricane of this year's Atlantic storm season.
At 5 p.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center said the storm was about 75 miles east of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, moving westward at about 5 mph. Its maximum sustained winds were around 90 mph.
The storm began pummeling mountainous Providencia late Friday, tearing roofs off wooden homes and causing hundreds of people to move to brick shelters in the highlands. Electricity and telephone service were knocked out for the 5,000 people on the Manhattan-sized island.
Colombia's social welfare minister, Diego Palacio, told The Associated Press that several houses and a popular tourist footbridge were damaged, but there was little flooding. Phones and power remained off on the island, a former pirate outpost inhabited mostly by descendants of slaves who speak English as their first language. It lies about 125 miles off the Nicaraguan coast.
Beta 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.