Hurricane Beta (2005)

**Hurricane Beta**
Category 3 hurricane (SSHS)
	; Hurricane Beta on October 29
Formed	October 26, 2005
Dissipated	October 31, 2005
	115 mph (185 km/h) (1-minute sustained)
Lowest pressure	962 mbar (hPa; 28.42 inHg)
Fatalities	None reported
Damage	Unknown
Areas; affected	San Andrés and Providencia(Colombia), Nicaragua, Honduras
	Part of the; 2005 Atlantic hurricane season

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Hurricane Beta was the twenty-third named storm, fourteenth hurricane, and seventh major hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It formed in the southwest Caribbean Sea in late October, and on October 30 made landfall on the Mosquito Coast in the north of the Nicaraguan Región Autónoma del Atlántico Sur as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Damage from the storm was severe, but less than initially feared.

[edit] Meteorological history

Storm path

Late on October 26, a broad area of low pressure in the southwestern part of the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Costa Rica organized into Tropical Depression Twenty-six. Shortly thereafter, it was upgraded to Tropical Storm Beta. Beta strengthened into a hurricane at 2 am EDT October 29, after spending a few hours on the border between tropical storm and hurricane strength. Beta reached windspeeds of 115 mph (185 km/h) making it a Category 3 hurricane by 4 am EST October 30.

The Colombian island of Providencia, about 140 miles off the coast of Nicaragua, was subjected to hurricane force winds for several hours as the center of the storm moved slowly very close to or over the island. Initial reports indicated extensive damage to homes and a temporary loss of communications with the islanders.

Beta made landfall in the morning of October 30 near the town of Sandy Bay Sirpi, 310 kilometres northeast of the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, as a strong Category 2 hurricane, wrecking a number of buildings and toppling trees. It weakened as it interacted with land and dissipated into a remnant low pressure system. Had the system continued to move westward, the possibility existed for it to regenerate once it entered the Pacific Ocean. If the storm had regenerated, a new number and name would have been given.

Infrared satellite image of Hurricane Beta near peak intensity

The remnants of Hurricane Beta dropped heavy rain over parts of Central America on Monday, prompting forecasters to warn of deadly landslides and flooding as the storm began to dissipate. There were numerous reports of damage but fortunately no deaths were reported, although there were numerous reports of injuries and people missing. The storm finally dissipated late in the evening of October 30.

Although Beta had moved out to sea, lingering rains from the storm continued to fall on Nicaragua and Honduras on October 31.

Nicaraguan officials said that if the hurricane had hit larger coastal cities such as Puerto Cabezas or Bluefields as was first predicted it would have been a disaster.

Hurricane Beta was the first hurricane to be named after a letter in the Greek alphabet; the first tropical system to be named with a Greek letter, Tropical Storm Alpha, didn't reach hurricane strength. It was also the first Greek-letter named storm to reach major hurricane intensity.

[edit] Preparation

In Puerto Cabezas, local authorities announced a curfew to prevent looting and worked to cut off electricity throughout the city to prevent potential injuries. 60,000 people were moved into shelters. Thousands of residents trudged through heavy rain to reach shelters.

Many experts, including national meteorology director Milagros Castro, warned of the threat of mudslides, especially since Beta was a slow-moving storm.

In Honduras, the government maintained a red alert for the storm and an emergency committee was working on evacuating 150,000 people from areas of the capital, Tegucigalpa, that would be prone to flooding and mudslides. Evacuations were being readied in five of the country's eighteen departments.

Civil defense officials have declared an alert in neighbouring El Salvador, fearing the threat of mudslides after Hurricane Stan devastated the region.

The preparations ultimately turned out to be critical, since there have been no reported fatalities despite the extensive damage.

[edit] Impact

[edit] Providencia

On the island of Providencia, roofs were ripped off from dozens of wooden homes, the island's main communications tower was knocked over and a tourist footbridge was torn apart. But most of the 5,000 islanders stayed safe by climbing Providencia's many hills to ride out the storm in brick shelters.

At least thirty people are reported to have been injured during Hurricane Beta's wrath on the island.

[edit] Nicaragua

Beta largely wiped out the town of Sandy Bay as it made landfall. Local reports said the town's population of 3,000 had mostly fled in advance. Wooden huts constitute most of the housing in Sandy Bay, and about eighty percent of it was rendered uninhabitable.

Trees were uprooted and roofs were ripped off from houses during Hurricane Beta's wrath. At least one pier was damaged. Many herds of cattle were killed by the storm.

700 people were trapped in Tasbapauni, a town separated from the mainland by a lagoon. Eighty percent of homes in Tasbapauni are estimated to be severely damaged. Some 200 homes in Laguna de Perlas' seventeen lake-front villages are reported to have been severely damaged.

Though the storm's remnants were expected to drop an additional four to eight inches on already saturated ground, President Enrique Bolaños said his country had escaped a major catastrophe. He pledged to quickly get aid to remote towns cut off by flooding and landslides.

Nicaraguan Civil Defence Chief Col. Mario Perez Cassar said eighty per cent of the buildings on the central coast where the hurricane hit were heavily damaged or destroyed.

One person was reported to be injured and four people were reported missing in Nicaragua. The four missing men were found alive later aboard a boat that had been swept out into the Caribbean. A passing Panamanian-registered tanker ship found the four, all Miskito Indians, adrift about forty eight kilometres off the Nicaraguan coast after their gasoline ran out.

[edit] Honduras

In Honduras, Beta left fifty communities isolated and damaged bridges in the northeastern provinces of Gracias a Dios, Atlantida and Colon on the coast.

Strong winds knocked down signs, fences, trees and electricity and telephone poles, cutting off power and communication in hundreds of communities and at least two highways were blocked.

Authorities evacuated more than 7,800 people from north of the Nicaraguan border after four rivers overflowed from rain brought by Beta.

The national soccer league suspended all its games. The airports at La Ceiba and Roatan on the coast were operating sporadically due to poor visibility, strong winds and flooding.

Flooding damaged rice, corn and bean fields. High waters also sent snakes out of the jungle into residential areas, although there were no reports of snakebites.