Cuba Center: TS Richard Aims for Belize

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Oct. 24 — Cuba’s Meteorolocial Insitute (INSMET) reports on Sunday that Tropical Storm Richard, with near hurricane force winds, is heading for a landing in Belize sometime on late Sunday or early Monday.

According to the latest INSMET advisory the storm is about to blow over the Honduras Bay Islands as it skirts the Central American country’s coast.  The islands are a popular tourist destination.

At 6:00 a.m. EST, Richard was 300 kilometers (185 miles) southeast of Belize and moving west-northwest at a speed of 17 kph (10.5 mph).

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami has issued a hurricane warning for central and  western Honduras, the far northeastern tip of Guatemala and all of Belize.

CNN reported that rainfall in northern Honduras and the Bay Islands would be between two and four inches.

The Cuban weather forecasters said TS Richard packs winds of 110 kph (70 mph) just shy of the 74 mph that would make it a hurricane, which INSMET says will likely be reached in the coming hours.