Hurricane Felix death toll hits 130 for Nicaragua

PUERTO CABEZAS, Nicaragua, Sep 7 (Reuters) The number of Nicaraguans who died when Hurricane Felix tore over Central America's Caribbean coast this week has jumped to around 130, a rescue official said today.

''We have around 130 corpses listed,'' civil defense official Fabio Benedic said, noting the figure included Nicaraguan fishermen whose bodies washed up in neighboring Honduras.

He said around 70 people were believed missing after high waves drowned fishermen and battered coastal villages.

President Daniel Ortega visited Nicaragua's debris-strewn northern coast today as a US Navy ship, US helicopters and a planeload of Venezuelan food aid arrived to help the rescue effort.

Felix, which brought back memories of Hurricane Mitch, which killed 10,000 people in Central America in 1998, struck near Nicaragua's border with Honduras on Tuesday as a giant Category 5 storm, smashing up thousands of flimsy wooden homes and flattening trees.

REUTERS PDT VC2159