People had hunkered down in Bilwi even before the hurricane arrived, already battered by screeching winds and torrential rains.īusiness owner Adan Artola Schultz braced himself in the doorway of his house as strong gusts of wind and rain drove water in torrents down the street. Nicaragua’s meteorology director Marcio Baca said the area was forecast to receive 150-180mm (6-7 inches) of rainfall and soils were already highly saturated. The Tola River had topped its banks and western Nicaragua, along the Pacific coast, were forecast to receive the most rain. He said one hotel in Bilwi had lost its entire roof.Īs the storm moved westward, flooding became the concern. More than 40,000 people were in shelters. Guillermo Gonzalez, director of Nicaragua’s emergency management agency, said on Tuesday morning that preliminary reports from the coast included fallen trees, electric poles and roofs stripped from homes, but no deaths or injuries. People evacuating before Hurricane Iota makes landfall in San Manuel Cortes, Honduras The storm was forecast to cross southern Honduras late on Tuesday. It was moving westward at 19kmph (12mph). On Tuesday morning, Iota still carried hurricane-force winds as a Category 1 storm, moving inland over northern Nicaragua with maximum sustained winds of 120kmph (75mph). It hit the coast about 48km (30 miles) south of the Nicaraguan city of Puerto Cabezas, also known as Bilwi. Iota had intensified into an extremely dangerous Category 5 hurricane on Monday, but the US National Hurricane Center said it weakened as it neared the coast later in the day and made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 250kmph (155mph). While the full extent of the damage from Eta won’t be known for a while, the powerful storm, combined with the coronavirus pandemic, may have effects that last for years.In a one-two punch, Hurricane Iota roared ashore along almost exactly the same stretch of Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast recently devastated by an equally powerful hurricane and then weakened as it tore across the northern part of the country. More than 3.6 million people across Central America have been affected by the storm to varying degrees, the Red Cross said earlier this week. This is the latest in the year there has ever been a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic Basin, according to the hurricane center. It is the 13th hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which has left its mark as a historic season bringing 30 named storms – the most ever. On November 3, Hurricane Eta made landfall as a Category 4 storm, causing landslides and flooding that displaced thousands and left scores of people dead or missing. Iota will be the second major hurricane to hit the area in as many weeks. People try to recover belongings amid mud after the passage of Hurricane Eta as they prepare to evacuate the Omonita neighborhood in El Progreso, Yoro department, Honduras. ![]() Swells will be felt from Central America to the Yucatan Peninsula, as far east as Jamaica and as far south as Colombia.Ĭentral America still recovering from Eta ![]() The predicted storm surge along the coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras will be accompanied by “large and destructive waves,” along with swells that cause “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions,” according to the advisory. Such high rainfall amounts will “lead to significant, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” the advisory warned. Rainfall accumulations throughout Central America are expected to be high, with Honduras, northern Nicaragua, Guatemala and southern Belize seeing between 8 and 16 inches and isolated accumulations of 20 to 30 inches possible in northeast Nicaragua and northern Honduras, according to the advisory.Ĭosta Rica and Panama should also see about 4 to 8 inches, with up to 12 inches possible in some areas. Nicaraguan Navy sailors help evacuate people from the Karata and Wawa Bar communities ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Iota in Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua Sunday.
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