Hurricane Beta strengthened to a dangerous Category 3 early yesterday as it battered Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, where troops tried to rush thousands of people into shelters to escape its fierce winds and rains. Beta carried winds of 115 mph (185 kph), and forecasters said its eye is expected to hit the jungle coast in the next few hours.

With the storm already lashing the normally sleepy fishing town of Puerto Cabezas, officials raced to find solid shelters for its residents and Miskito Indian evacuees from small fishing villages along the coast.

“It is impossible to think you could evacuate 50 000 people between now and 6 in the morning. We don’t have the means to do it,” President Enrique Bolanos said in a late night television and radio address. “We are doing everything humanly possible.”

Defense Minister Avil Ramirez said the army has food and medicines in place but that it was impossible to evacuate this remote town and he warned many homes might not survive. “Puerto Cabezas has simple wooden homes and, faced with these wind speeds, unfortunately no one can be prepared.”

Plastic sheets were nailed over windows at one concrete shelter where 53 patients from the town’s only hospital had been moved for their safety. “Most of the patients are stable,” said Sonia Downs, a 53-year-old nurse in charge at the shelter as she prepared for a sleepless night. “We have basic medicines.”

Beta is the 23rd named storm of this year’s relentless, record-breaking Atlantic-Caribbean season. Nicaragua and neighboring Honduras feared the slow-moving storm’s rains would trigger mudslides in mountainous areas further inland. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch killed an estimated 10 000 people across Central America.

As Beta approached, barefoot fishing families fled from coastal hamlets to seek protection in Puerto Cabezas, where schools were turned into storm shelters. But some families along the coast refused to leave their flimsy wooden shacks even as Beta began pounding the area, making palm trees dance in its wild winds. “I’m not afraid, you should always trust in God. He is the only one who can decide your fate,” said Bartolo Panting, a local builder. “I’m not moving until it’s really raining.”

Small fishing villages populated by Indian tribes like the Miskitos and descendants of escaped African slaves are strung along the Caribbean coast, one of Central America’s most isolated areas. Residents are traditionally wary of outsiders and officials were unable to persuade many to leave their homes.

Soldiers evacuated 170 people from one coastal village but 30 others refused to leave. “These people do not believe in danger until they really feel it,” said Col. Mario Perez-Cassar, the head of Nicaragua’s civil defense. At 4 a.m. (EST 900 GMT), the storm was about 70 miles (85 km) south of Puerto Cabezas and moving west-southwest at 8 mph (13 kph).

The US National Hurricane Centre said Beta, now a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, was expected to make landfall early yesterday. It was expected to weaken steadily as it moves inland. It warned of storm surge flooding of up to 17 feet (5 metres) and said rains of 10 to 15 inches (25 to 38 cm) would hit Nicaragua and Honduras with isolated maximum amounts of 25 inches (64 cm) possible. A Category 3 storm can cause extensive damage.

Honduras declared a national emergency and prepared to evacuate up to 125 000 people. In the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, and the industrial city of San Pedro Sula, residents rushed to supermarkets to buy basics and long lines formed at gasoline stations. Beta earlier ripped roofs off homes on Colombia’s small Caribbean island of Providencia, which along with neighboring San Andres was once a favoured hideaway of famous 17th century Welsh pirate Henry Morgan. No deaths were reported.

Earlier this month, Hurricane Stan killed up to 2 000 people in Central America when its rains caused mudslides. Most of those killed were Guatemalan highland villagers. Last week, Hurricane Wilma wrecked Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts, flooded Cuba and pounded southern Florida.