MIAMI - One person was reported missing in Venezuela as Hurricane Felix grew rapidly into a potentially devastating class-five storm Sunday, howling winds of 270 kilometers (165 miles) per hour as it headed on a track toward Honduras and Belize.
The Honduran government called an alert for five departments on its Caribbean coast, as the US National Hurricane Center forecast the storm will pass just offshore of the Gracias a Dios department on Tuesday.
The Miami-based US National Hurricane Center reported that the second full-fledged hurricane of the Atlantic storm season rapidly intensified to the topmost Category Five Sunday, while moving over the warm south Caribbean.
In a bare 15 hours, Felix jumped from a Category Two storm with winds at 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour to the topmost category on the Saffir-Sampson scale, with sustained winds hitting 270 kilometers (165 miles) per hour.
In Venezuela civil defense officials said a person went missing as beaches were evacuated in Puerto Cabello, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Caracas, where Felix generated high winds, heavy rains and up to three meter (10 feet) swells.
There were no immediate reports of damage as the storm skimmed just north of the Paraguana peninsula, site of Venezuela's main oil refineries.
Meanwhile Jamaica, which lay well to the north of Felix's track, was under a tropical storm watch as it prepared to hold elections Monday, already postponed from one week ago by Hurricane Dean.
"Reports from a NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) hurricane hunter aircraft indicate that Felix continues to rapidly strengthen," the NHC said in its 0000 GMT (Monday) public advisory.
At the time of the upgrade, the massive storm was about 625 kilometers (390 miles) southeast of Kingston, Jamaica and just northwest of Colombia's Guajira peninsula, where it was expected to generate five to 10 centimeters (two to four inches) of rain, according to the NHC.
It was moving west-northwest at around 30 kilometers (18 miles) per hour on track to skim the north coast of Honduras and head directly for Belize and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, where it could hit land Wednesday.
Warnings for Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao were discontinued as Felix swiped the popular tourist destinations in the Netherlands Antilles after wreaking some damage in Grenada, reportedly ripping roofs, downing power lines and knocking radio and TV stations off the air. No injuries were reported.
Last week, Dean, also reaching category five, swept through the Caribbean with severe winds and rains, leaving a wide swathe of damage and a death toll of 30 from Martinique to Mexico.
09/03/2007 01:08 GMT