Gamma kills 12 in Central America

In Honduras, Gamma's torrential rains, which followed several days of downpours from a cold front, cut off Caribbean coast villages, killed at least nine people and left 14 others missing. Several disappeared when a rescue boat overturned in raging river waters.

Slow-moving Gamma is the 24th named storm of a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season and is cutting an erratic course off the Caribbean coast of Central America and toward Cuba, where it is expected to land on Monday. The storm was not expected to gain strength.

Experts said it would bypass Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, which is recovering from a battering by Hurricane Wilma three weeks ago, and revised earlier predictions to say it probably would not directly hit southern Florida, where Wilma also wreaked havoc.