Hurricane Iota was blowing maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometers per hour.
Bilwi, Nicaragua:
Iota made landfall in Nicaragua as a “catastrophic” Category 5 hurricane on Monday, threatening to deliver heavier rains and high winds to areas devastated by a powerful storm just two weeks ago.
Authorities rushed to evacuate thousands of people from coastal areas of Nicaragua and Honduras on the immediate path of the maximum hurricane.
The storm had already claimed one death as it swept through the Colombian Caribbean island territory of Providencia, where it had caused extensive damage.
“This powerful hurricane Iota is already on the front lines, it is already on earth,” said Marcio Baca, director of meteorology at the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER).
US forecasters from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned of “catastrophic winds, deadly storm surges and torrential rains … in Central America.”
It was packing maximum sustained winds of 160 miles (260 kilometers) per hour with higher gusts recorded.
Category 5 hurricanes destroy many homes, destroy power supplies and most of the affected area is “uninhabitable for weeks or months,” the NHC said.
Col. John Fredy Sepulveda, the police chief in Providencia, said the local hospital had lost part of its roof and the territory of around 6,000 people was without electricity.
Hundreds of residents of indigenous communities on Nicaragua’s northeast coast, near the town of Bilwi, were still waiting to be evacuated earlier on Monday.
“With Hurricane Eta we did not get out, but this one is more dangerous,” said Marisol Ingram, whose wooden house was badly damaged by Eta and is in danger of being swept away by Iota.
Eta made landfall in the same area as a Category 4 hurricane in early November before easing into a tropical storm causing widespread flooding and landslides that killed 200 people.
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season saw the most named storms on record, with 30 named storms and 13 hurricanes.
So much so that in October, with the arrival of Tropical Storm Wilfred in the East Atlantic, meteorologists had already used all the names on the season’s list, forcing them to switch to the Greek alphabet for the names, which was no longer necessary since 2005.
Iota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet.
Warmer seas caused by climate change make hurricanes stronger longer after they arrive on land, scientists say.
Evacuations in progress
Shelters in Nicaragua, already stretched by people homeless by Eta, were overwhelmed with new arrivals, Eufemia Hernandez, coordinator of a center at Uraccan University, told AFP.
In Bilwi, residents have spent the day desperately trying to secure the roofs of flimsy wooden houses with the same zinc sheets torn off by Eta.
Many people were packing their belongings in plastic bags to protect them from the coming rains.
Prinsila Glaso, an 80-year-old Miskito, told AFP that in her community south of Bilwi “everything is destroyed!” in Eta’s wake, and the next hurricane Iota would leave little room.
“I haven’t eaten. I don’t know where I’m going to sleep here. I’m very sad,” she said.
El Salvador’s government declared a “red alert” ahead of the hurricane. Guatemala, large areas of which were still recovering from Eta, was also on alert.
In Honduras, Iota was already causing strong gusts and heavy rains Monday in the exposed eastern departments of Gracias a Dios, Colon, northern Olancho and part of Atlantida, according to disaster agency COPECO.
Local media reported that more than 175,000 people have been evacuated since Saturday, especially in areas previously flooded by Eta, including the industrial valley of Sula, north of the capital Tegucigalpa.
The NHC has warned that Iota will deposit 10 to 20 inches (250 to 500 mm) of rain over Honduras, northern Nicaragua, southeast Guatemala and southern Belize, with isolated totals of up to 30 inches.
“These rains would cause flash floods and significant and potentially fatal flooding, as well as landslides in areas of higher ground,” he said.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
