Nicaraguan storm survivors float for days at sea

PUERTO CABEZAS, Nicaragua, Sep 8 (Reuters) Nicaraguan villagers spent four days in shark-infested seas clinging to driftwood or smashed houses and boats after Hurricane Felix battered the Caribbean coast, survivors said today.

A Nicaraguan navy patrol boat brought 40 men and one woman ashore in the port of Puerto Cabezas after plucking them out of the sea or whisking them from battered, isolated islands.

Some survivors, mostly lobster divers who were at sea when the deadly Category 5 storm hit, lived to tell their tale by tying themselves to floating wood as they were battered by Felix's 160 mph winds and mammoth waves.

''It was a plank, a plank just like this one,'' said Onesio Perez, pointing to the planks of the dock, his arms covered with rope burns from strapping himself to the wood, as he stepped ashore at this Caribbean port.

Another survivor, Kelvin Ortega, said he spent four days floating on a piece of driftwood.

Hurricane Felix tore into the border area of Nicaragua and Honduras this week and killed at least 130 people. The dead were mainly Nicaraguan Miskito Indians, including some fishermen whose bodies washed up in Honduras.

High winds and waves battered coastal villages and devastated islets known as the Miskito Keys.

Eduardo Sanders, captain of the rescue boat, said the survivors were completely drained of energy when they were picked up.

''They practically couldn't drink water and couldn't eat,'' Sanders said.

Most survivors managed to walk off the patrol boat unaided, although two were carried off on stretchers.

Villagers packed the dock where the survivors were unloaded waiting for word of several dozen local people believed missing.

Many left crying and wailing, resigned to accepting that the missing will unlikely be found alive. Hundreds of people did not evacuate before the storm and had only their flimsy wooden shacks for shelter.

''I work with 10 people and all were taken, none found,'' said Samuel Morales, 31, another survivor. ''Just me floating on a piece of wood.'' Densela Frapo, her eyes full of tears, had hoped that her 49-year-old mother, who was on the Miskito Keys when the storm hit, would be on the rescue boat.

''We think she is dead because she hasn't been found yet,'' said her cousin Norma Archibald.

Nicaragua's navy is continuing the search for survivors although the chance of finding more alive are dimming.

''The orders we have are to go back to the zone and continue the search and rescue and bring back the bodies we find, living and drowned,'' Sanders said. ''Probably at this stage finding survivors is going to be very difficult, since we are talking about five days.'' REUTERS PDT RN0005