Hurricane Lisa hits Belize near main port, uprooting trees

BELIZE CITY, (Reuters) - Hurricane Lisa bore down on Belize yesterday, yanking out trees and toppling electric posts and causing scattered blackouts in the Caribbean nation famed for its tourist appeal, but there were no reports of deaths or major damage so far.

"It is a scary experience," said single mother Angelica Escalante, who works as a translator in the town of Sand Hill, just outside Belize City and expressed concern about her neighbors' homes.

"Their roofs might not be strong enough for this weather," she said.

Indeed, some roofs sustained damage while flooding to bungalow houses was also visible, but local officials had yet to quantify the impact from the storm.

The eye of Lisa, a Category 1 hurricane, churned 20 miles (32 km) west of Belize City, the tiny country's main commercial port, weakening somewhat as it made landfall. Its extended reach packed maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest report.

The center forecasts rapid weakening as Lisa moves further inland, but steady rainfall and the potential for widespread flooding still pose significant dangers.

NHC predicts that after Lisa moves over sparsely-populated Belize, its strong winds and heavy rains will slowly cross the jungles of northern Guatemala and southeastern Mexico, home to ancient Maya ruins and beach resorts.

Weather models over the next couple of days show Lisa on a path to reach the southern Gulf of Mexico's Bay of Campeche, where major offshore drilling rigs operated by national oil company Pemex are located. The models, however, show a weakened storm system once it reaches the area.

The NHC said Lisa was moving westward at a speed of 12 mph (19 kph) and that a powerful storm surge could lift tides some four to seven feet (one to two meters) above normal levels.