PUERTO CABEZAS, Nicaragua -- Thousands of Nicaraguans in boarded-up homes or shelters braced for the arrival of Hurricane Beta early Sunday after the storm steadily gathered strength overnight. The outer bands were already thrashing the mainland with heavy rains and high winds.

Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos declared a maximum "red alert" late Saturday, ordering everyone to stay inside. He said some 45,000 people from the port regions were either secured in their homes or holed up in 15 shelters provided by the government.

At 4 a.m. EST, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Beta's winds had picked up to 115 mph and it was upgraded to a major Category 3 storm. It was expected to make landfall within hours on Nicaragua's east coast.

On Saturday, the record 13th hurricane in the Atlantic this season lashed the tiny Caribbean island of Providencia with harsh winds, heavy rains and high surf.

Before dawn Sunday, Beta was centered about 140 miles south of Cabo Gracias a Dios on Nicaragua's border with Honduras and about 70 miles south of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. It was moving west-southwest at close to 8 mph, the hurricane center said. It could bring a storm surge up to 17 feet when it makes landfall and 10 to 15 inches of rain could fall in Central America, the center added.

Troops in Nicaragua on Saturday evacuated 10,000 people from the far eastern coastal port of Cabo de Gracias a Dios, and from along the River Coco, both on the Honduras border, said Nicaragua's national civil defense director, Lt. Col. Mario Perez Cassar.

The Civil Defense Department sent 100 army rescue specialists along with various land and water vehicles. A tent hospital also was set up, while universities and public schools were closed and converted into shelters. Flights to the Nicaraguan islands Islas del Maiz were canceled.

Residents of low-lying neighborhoods in Puerto Cabeza also were taken to provisional shelters on higher ground as heavy rains and wind began to batter the coast, flooding some low-lying neighborhoods. Businesses raised food prices in response to the heavy demand, while bottled water supplies ran out. Authorities threatened to sanction the price gougers.

In Honduras on Saturday, President Ricardo Maduro declared a maximum state of alert as strong winds and intense rains from Beta began to batter the Atlantic coast. Authorities evacuated more than 50 people due to flooding in a coastal city also known as Gracias a Dios, on the border with Nicaragua.

Maduro stressed the importance of being prepared to avoid a tragedy like the one caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. That storm stalled over Honduras with 120 mph winds, sweeping away bridges, flooding neighborhoods and killing thousands.

The storm began pummeling the mountainous Colombian island of Providencia late Friday, tearing roofs off wooden homes and causing hundreds of people to move to brick shelters in the highlands. Electricity and telephone service were knocked out for the 5,000 people on the Manhattan-sized island.

Several people were slightly injured, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said. The calming news is that there were no fatalities," Uribe said Saturday in Bogota before boarding a plane for the region.

Colombia's social welfare minister, Diego Palacio, told The Associated Press that several houses and a popular tourist footbridge were damaged, but there was little flooding. Phones and power remained off on the island, a former pirate outpost inhabited mostly by descendants of slaves who speak English as their first language. It lies about 125 miles off the Nicaraguan coast.

Beta was the 13th hurricane this year, more than any Atlantic season on record. This season has also seen 23 named storms, more than at any point since record-keeping began in 1851. The previous record of 21 was set in 1933.

Last week Tropical Storm Alpha formed, the first time a letter from the Greek alphabet has been used because the list of storm names was exhausted.

Hurricane Wilma, the most recent storm to hit the United States, caused widespread outages and gasoline shortages across Florida; and the U.S. Gulf Coast is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina, which caused chaos and devastation in New Orleans and surrounding areas in August.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Beta was centred about 160 kilometres southeast of Honduras's Cabo Gracias a Dios and about 120 kilometres east of Nicaragua's Puerto Cabezas. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 150 km/h and was moving west at about eight km/h, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The eye was expected to reach the northeastern coast of Nicaragua and nearby islands late Saturday or early Sunday, the centre said.

Storm surge flooding of up to five metres above normal tide levels was possible along Nicaraguan's eastern coast, while the storm was expected to dump up to 40 centimetres of rain across northeastern Honduras.

Beta was the 13th hurricane this year, more than any Atlantic season on record. This season has also seen 23 named storms, more than at any point since record-keeping began in 1851.

Hurricane Stan hit southern Mexico at Category 1 strength Oct. 4, causing flooding and mudslides that killed 71 people in the southern state Chiapas and left 654 dead - and 828 missing - in neighbouring Guatemala. Another 71 died in El Salvador.

Hurricane Wilma, which reached Category 5 strength and was still a Category 4 storm when it made landfall, killed four people in Mexico, 12 in Haiti, one in Jamaica and was blamed for 14 deaths in Florida.

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