Hurricane Ida hits Nicaragua coast

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - Newly born Hurricane Ida ripped into Nicaragua's Atlantic coast on Thursday, destroying several dozen homes and forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 people.

Ida, clocking 75 mph (120 kph) winds, struck land around sunrise in Tasbapauni, about 60 miles northeast of Bluefields, said meteorologist Dennis Feltgen of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

About 80 percent of homes were destroyed in nearby Karawala, a fishing village of about 100 flimsy, wooden shacks near the mouth of the Rio Grande de Matagalpa, said Nicaragua's National Civil Defense director Mario Perez.

No deaths or injuries have been reported but Perez said officials are still trying to get information from the region, where the storm knocked out power and telephone service.

Ida was moving to the northwest at 6 mph (9 kph) and could dump as much as 20 inches (500 millimeters) of rain in parts as it crosses eastern Nicaragua, with the risk of flash floods and mudslides, according to the Miami-based center.

The storm could also raise coastal water levels by as much as 3 feet (nearly 1 meter) above ground level, with dangerous waves.

More than 3,000 people had been evacuated — 800 of those from flimsy, makeshift homes on Corn Island and nearby Little Corn Island, where strong winds damaged about 45 homes, smashed boats, toppled trees and knocked out power. Residents were taken to the port authority building and concrete hotels.

About 2,500 people live on the two islands, which are popular tourist destinations.

Rowena Kandler, owner of the Sunrise Hotel on Corn Island, said many fruit trees on the hotel's 13-acre ranch were damaged.

"We don't have electricity or water," she said. "Everything is on the ground now. Thank God we're alive."

The hotel had two guests who rode out the storm Wednesday night, but Kandler said they left for the airport Thursday morning.

More than 1,000 people were evacuated in Bluefields, and the airport closed.

At the Oasis Hotel and Casino, located half a block from the coast in Bluefields, receptionist Adelis Molina said winds were strong and guests from the United States, Italy and Guatemala were hunkering down inside.

Heavy rains and winds kept officials from evacuating about 80 people on Cayos Perla, but authorities said they planned to used speedboats to get them out.

Ida was forecast to weaken while cutting across Nicaragua and eastern Honduras before possibly emerging over open water on Saturday — a still-tentative path that could carry it near Mexico's resort of Cancun by midweek.

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Catherine Shoichet in Mexico City contributed to this report.