The death toll from Hurricane Felix rose to 98 on Thursday as villagers paddling canoes joined U.S., Honduran and Nicaraguan soldiers in the search for survivors and the dead.

People stand near a partially destroyed home in Sandy Bay, Nicaragua, on Wednesday, after Hurricane Felix passed over the area.
(German Miranda, La Prensa/Associated Press)

At least 33 more bodies were recovered Thursday, said Abelino Cox of the Regional Emergency Committee in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, bringing the toll to 98 dead from the previously reported 65.

Cox did not say where the additional 33 bodies were found.

At least 25 bodies were found earlier in Honduras, Nicaraguan and Honduran officials said.

The news of more dead came after 52 Miskito Indians were pulled out of the water alive near the shore in Honduras after clinging to floating debris such as tables and buoys for 16 hours, a Honduran official said.

Residents ride bikes through a flooded street near a market in La Ceiba, eastern Honduras, on Tuesday.
(Esteban Felix/Associated Press)

The survivors said the storm caught them by surprise, flooding the tiny islands off the Nicaraguan coast used by lobster fishermen and destroying their wooden shacks. Nine of the survivors are in serious condition, said Carolina Echeverria, a federal lawmaker in Honduras.

About 150,000 Miskitos — descendants of aboriginal Central Americans, European settlers and African slaves — live on island reefs and in small jungle hamlets along the Honduran-Nicaraguan border.

The survivors were part of a larger group of 150, the rest of whom are still unaccounted for.

Many suffered dehydration and were receiving medical care in the seaside town of Villeda Morales on the Nicaraguan border.

"We believe there are many more in the ocean or on nearby beaches," Echeverria said. "People in neighbouring communities … have seen an undetermined number of cadavers floating in the sea and in the Coco and Segovia rivers."

Felix had top winds of 257 km/h

Honduran Defence Minister Aristides Mejia said he was sending boats and a military helicopter to the area to help in the rescue operation.

The debris-filled ocean kept a rescue mission from reaching shore at Sandy Bay, where the eye of Felix made landfall Tuesday with top wind speeds of 257 km/h and a storm surge estimated at 5.5 metres above normal tides.

More were missing in Matagalpa province in the north, where rivers overflowed their banks, and around hard-hit Puerto Cabezas, which is a coastal city, said Alvaro Rivas, a Nicaraguan Civil Defence Department spokesman.

In Honduras, nearly 30,000 people fled their homes, about 10,000 of them seeking refuge in government shelters.

The remnants of Felix, which was downgraded to a tropical depression by late Wednesday, continued to drench Central America that day as it moved westward, bringing heavy rain to an already waterlogged southeastern Mexico.

Henriette dumps on Mexico

Meanwhile, Mexico's west coast was cleaning up after Hurricane Henriette, which killed at least nine people. Hours after the Pacific storm made landfall Wednesday near the port city of Guaymas with top winds of 121 km/h, it faded into a tropical storm as it moved inland.

The Pacific storm hit Baja California on Tuesday.

Its remnants dumped rain on Arizona and New Mexico in the United States.

Along Mexico's northwestern coast, hundreds of people spent Wednesday night in shelters, and schools and ports were closed.

Mexican navy Capt. Leopoldo Mendoza said a navy helicopter was searching the Bay of La Paz for a small boat that disappeared Tuesday amid high seas from Henriette. He said two Mexicans and two Japanese nationals were on board.

With files from the Associated Press