Hurricane BETA about to BETA into submission Nicaragua.

[Frozzy]

I BETA lot of people will be hurt. At least there will be high demand for panelBETAs, and it is a BETA name than Wilma. It is also BETA news than most other big stories. Have you got anything BETA to post about?

[DinoDoc]

/me flogs Kalius for the crime of making bad use of puns

[Frozzy]

Seriously, looks like there will be a lot of landslides, etc.

Nicaragua has ordered the evacuation of a coastal city after Hurricane Beta changed course and threatened to become a Category Three storm.

Authorities in northeastern Puerto Cabezas fear there will not be enough time to evacuate all of the city's 60,000 inhabitants.

Beta was packing winds of 150 km/h (90 mph) and was strengthening as it headed for the coast, said US forecasters.

Beta is the 13th hurricane of the Atlantic season - a record.

Hurricane Beta's path

Strong winds and heavy rain have already begun hitting Puerto Cabezas, about 400km (250 miles) northeast of the capital Managua.

"The hurricane has changed course and is coming straight at Puerto Cabezas," Defence Minister Avil Ramirez told AFP news agency.

"We have ordered the city and its surrounding districts completely evacuated but we do not have the capacity to help everyone."

Beta could make landfall on Nicaragua's border with Honduras on Sunday morning, said the US National Hurricane Center.

Both countries have issued hurricane warnings.

In Honduras, officials have set up shelters, and sent food and other supplies to areas that might be affected by the storm.

Hurricane record

Earlier, Beta ripped the roofs off low-lying wooden homes on the Colombian island of Providencia in the Caribbean while residents took refuge in brick shelters built on high ground.

All the islanders were believed to be safe but many homes had been damaged, Capt German Collazos, chief of ports, told the Associated Press news agency.

This hurricane season has seen 23 named storms, more than at any point since record-keeping began in 1851. The previous record of 21 was set in 1933.

Last week Tropical Storm Alpha was named as it formed - the first time a letter from the Greek alphabet has been used because the list of storm names has been exhausted.

Alpha, which struck earlier this week, killed 26 people in the Caribbean and caused flooding and mudslides in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It has now subsided.

Earlier this month, hundreds of people were killed in Guatemala by mudslides triggered by Hurricane Stan.

Meanwhile, residents in Florida are continuing with the clear-up following Hurricane Wilma last weekend.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially ends on 30 November.

[Zopperoni]

Re: Hurricane BETA about to BETA into submission Nicaragua.

Originally posted by Kalius
Have you got anything BETA to post about?

"This is not a test."

[Bill3000]

...why is it called beta?

[DinoDoc]

We ran out of English letters. We're raiding the Greeks now.

[Kuciwalker]

Because the previous one was Alpha.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
We ran out of English letters. We're raiding the Greeks now.

Us heathen Americans will end up bastardizing Greek language simply by using it.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Bill3000
...why is it called beta?

The first storm the of the year has a name starting with A the second B etc...

This year they've ran out of Latin letters and have moved on to Greek letters.