Wikipedia:Today's featured article/October 4, 2016
Hurricane Iris of 2001 was the most destructive tropical cyclone in Belize since Hurricane Hattie in 1961. Iris was the second-strongest storm of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season, behind Hurricane Michelle. While passing south of the Dominican Republic, Iris dropped heavy rainfall that caused landslides, killing eight people. Later, the hurricane passed south of Jamaica, where it destroyed two houses. On reaching the western Caribbean Sea, it rapidly intensified to Category 4 on the Saffir–Simpson scale. A small hurricane with an eye of only 7 miles (11 km) in diameter, it reached peak winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) before making landfall in Belize. The storm killed 24 people there, including 20 who died when a scuba diving boat capsized near Big Creek. It also killed eight people and damaged about 2,500 homes in neighboring Guatemala, and later dropped heavy rainfall in southern Mexico, where two people died. Destruction in Belize totaled US$250 million. Because Iris was compact, the damage was confined to 72% of the houses in the Toledo district and 50% of the houses in the Stann Creek district. (Full article...)