Hurricane Beta made landfall in Nicaragua early Sunday with winds of 175 kph, uprooting trees and ripping roofs off houses, local media reported on Sunday.

Beta, which is now a Category-2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, killed one person and left many communities stranded and thousands of people displaced. It also cut off telephone lines and power supply.

Nicaragua has sent troops to Karawala and Sandy Bay on the Caribbean coast, where the hurricane came ashore.

The Ministry of Defense said Beta killed a woman in Karawala and the navy was looking for a vessel carrying 10 people, which was reportedly missing.

There were 13,000 refugees in southern Nicaragua, military officials said, adding that the cities of Cruz de Rio Grande, Laguna de Perlas and Kukra Hill in the Caribe Sur region are the worst hit.

According to the Nicaraguan Office of Domestic Research, Beta will pass through central and west Nicaragua, including the capital Managua, before moving to the Pacific Ocean on Monday.

The storm also caused heavy rains and flooding in Honduras and Costa Rica.

Honduran authorities have declared a red alert in the cities of Gracias a Dios, Colon, Atlantida and Olanco due to torrential rains and flooding.

They said they have evacuated 7,800 people from Gracias a Dios, a city in the northeast, and are also evacuating Colon.

Honduran President Ricardo Maduro said he will dispatch teams to Gracias a Dios, Colon and Atlantida as soon as possible to assess the damage, especially to local agriculture.

In Costa Rica, the National Emergency Commission said heavy rains have hit regions near its southern border with Panama.

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2005)