Nicaragua and Honduras in a joint death toll Thursday, said that Hurricane Felix killed 100 people in their two countries.

In Mexico, meanwhile, nine people were killed in the wake of Hurricane Henriette, which swept across Baja California's popular Cabo tourist areas before plowing into the country's northern regions, slowing as it crossed the US border. Some 5,000 people remained in shelters in Mexico.

In Central America, low-lying areas were on high alert against flooding as rivers continued to rise following super-storm Felix, which blasted into Nicaragua's northern Mosquito Coast Tuesday, killing at least 38 and leaving 50,000 homeless.

At special risk are owner-built homes on precarious foundations and in the path of mudslides.

The storm at its peak Tuesday reached the highest possible category five strength on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

The European Union announced it would send 1.3 million dollars in emergency aid to help the relief effort in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua's disaster chief Ramon Arnesto Sistema said the death toll was "likely to rise," with some 120 people missing from the Miskito Cays along the coast of the impoverished North Atlantic Autonomous Region.

An aircraft with tonnes of food, blankets and medication landed late Wednesday in Bilwi, the regional capital, and a Venezuelan cargo plane was due to arrive later Thursday.

The World Food Program delivered 4.5 tonnes of aid to the Nicaraguan government, while neighboring El Salvador and Honduras also sent assistance.

The population worst hit by the storm was without help for a full day due to the remoteness of the jungle region.

The bodies of 24 native Miskito Nicaraguans, whose fishing boat had capsized, were found near the Caribbean coast of Honduras in the wake of Felix, an official told reporters Thursday.

"This morning I was told that a boat was recovered with 24 bodies, 21 men and three women," government representative for the Gracias a Dios region, Carolina Echeverria said.

Meanwhile, President Manuel Zelaya said that he had been told of dozens of Miskitos killed, adding that there were "128 more missing, many of whom are likely to have drowned."

In the wealthy Valle de Sula farming and industrial region of northwest Honduras, the military, Red Cross and rescue officials pressed thousands of reluctant inhabitants of some 20 local villages to evacuate their homes ahead of surging waters in the Ulua and Chamelecon rivers.

"The rivers are rising, it is almost certain that they will flood, and we cannot run the risk that there will be deaths because we did not take the situation seriously," El Progresso mayor Jose Martinez told AFP.

On an all-terrain vehicle, Ramon Villeda, head of the firefighters at the San Pedro Sula airport, drove along the river banks to study the situation, calling on residents to leave their homes.

"It is necessary to leave the area, without a doubt. The people will possibly be able to return to their homes safe and sound on Friday, when the danger has passed," he said.

In Guatemala, authorities declared a red alert in Izabal City, some 300 kilometers northeast of the capital, where residents have been evacuated over worries of flooding.

Flooding alerts were also sounded, and evacuations launched in El Salvador and Mexico's southern Chiapas state.

Two storm victims died in Mexico and one was missing in Guaymas, on the Sonora state coast, adding to seven who died earlier when Henriette swept up Mexico's southern Pacific coast.

related report
Hurricane toll around 100 in Nicaragua, Honduras
The death toll from Hurricane Felix neared 100, according to updated figures released by authorities in Nicaragua and Honduras on Thursday after the storm battered the two countries this week.

The previous toll of 71 was raised after the discovery of 28 additional bodies of native Miskitos in the sea off the Caribbean coast.

related report
US military relief assessment team in storm-hit Nicaragua
The US military has sent a team to Nicaragua to assess conditions in the wake of deadly Hurricane Felix and plan for humanitarian assistance, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The USS Wasp, a helicopter carrier, is on standby in waters near Nicaragua in case it is needed, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

A high speed vessel has also been dispatched to the US Navy base at Guantanamo, Cuba to pick up emergency relief supplies -- food, blankets, sheeting and hygiene kits -- that could be used, he said.

He said the assessment team was sent to Nicaragua in response to a request for assistance by the government.

The death toll from the devastating hurricane conmtinued to rise Thursday. Scores of people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in Nicaragua and Honduras.

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