Hurricane Iota powers up in new threat to Central America

16 November 2020, 06:24

Pictures of the Week in Latin America & Caribbean Photo Gallery
Pictures of the Week in Latin America & Caribbean Photo Gallery. Picture: PA

The area is still recovering from the damage caused by Hurricane Eta.

A fast-strengthening Hurricane Iota is sweeping over the western Caribbean and predicted to become a very dangerous Category 4 storm as it heads for the same part of Central America that was battered by a similarly powerful Hurricane Eta just over a week ago.

Evacuations were being conducted from low-lying areas in Nicaragua and Honduras near their shared border, which appeared to be Iota’s likely landfall.

Winds and rain were already being felt on the Nicaraguan coast on Sunday night.

Iota became a hurricane early on Sunday and rapidly gained power, and was expected to pass over or near Colombia’s Providencia island during the night.

It became a dangerous Category 3 hurricane early on Monday, and the US National Hurricane Centre warned it would probably reach Category 4 strength as it approached the Central America mainland late Monday.

Honduras Tropical Weather
A toddler is carried over a flooded street in the aftermath of Hurricane Eta in Jerusalen, Honduras (Delmer Martinez/AP)

The hurricane centre said Iota had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph early on Monday.

It was centred about 190 miles east-southeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua-Honduras border and moving westward at 10 mph.

It was already a record-breaking system, being the 30th named storm of this year’s extraordinarily busy Atlantic hurricane season.

Such activity has focused attention on climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms.

In Honduras, compulsory evacuations began before the weekend and by Sunday evening 63,500 people were reported to be in 379 shelters just in the northern region, while the whole country was on high alert.

Nicaraguan officials said that by late Sunday afternoon about 1,500 people, nearly half of them children, had been evacuated from low-lying areas in the country’s northeast, including all the inhabitants of Cayo Misquitos.

Authorities said 83,000 people in that region were in danger.

Wind and rain were beginning to be felt on Sunday night in Bilwi, a coastal Nicaraguan city where people crowded markets and hardware stores during the day in search of plastic sheeting, nails and other materials to reinforce their homes, just as they did when Hurricane Eta hit on November 3.

Several residents of Bilwi expressed concern that their homes would not stand up to Iota, so soon after Eta.

Local television showed people being evacuated in wooden boats, carrying young children as well as dogs and chickens.

Nicaragua Tropical Weather
Residents ride out Hurricane Eta in a shelter in the Nazareth community of El Naranjal, Nicaragua (Carlos Herrera/AP)

Authorities warned that the risk was high because Iota would probably come ashore over areas where Eta’s torrential rains left the soil saturated with water and more prone to new landslides and floods.

Eta already wreaked havoc. It hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane, killing at least 120 people as torrential rains caused flash floods and mudslides in parts of Central America and Mexico.

Then it meandered across Cuba, the Florida Keys and around the Gulf of Mexico before slogging ashore again near Cedar Key, Florida, and dashing across Florida and the Carolinas.

Iota was forecast to drop 8 to 16 inches (200 -400 millimetres) of rain in northern Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and southern Belize, with as much as 30 inches (750 millimetres) in isolated spots.

Costa Rica and Panama could also experience heavy rain and possible flooding, the hurricane centre said.

Eta was the 28th named storm of this year’s hurricane season, tying the 2005 record for named storms. Theta, the 29th, was far out in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, and became a remnant low on Sunday.

The official end of hurricane season is November 30.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

France and Israel fans clash with police in Paris despite ramped up police presence following Amsterdam unrest

France and Israel fans clash amid ramped up police presence in Paris for UEFA Nations League game

Basem Naim, a Hamas leader

Hamas prepared for 'immediate' ceasefire in Gaza but claims Israel has not offered any 'serious proposals' in months

Donald Trump with Matt Gaetz

Trump's pick for US attorney-general faced sex-trafficking investigation by department he's now set to lead

TOPSHOT-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-DISPLACED

Ukraine-style visa scheme for Gaza families proposed by Labour MP

President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office

Donald Trump names ‘reckless’ Matt Gaetz attorney general as president-elect holds historic meeting with Joe Biden

President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump and Biden 'both really enjoyed seeing each other', claims President-elect after historic meeting at White House

President Trump Speaks at America First Agenda Summit

Who has Trump picked to be in his cabinet so far and who is in the running?

Two women - who were part of a global monkey torture network - have been jailed

Two women jailed after being part of 'sickening and sadistic' monkey torture network

US President Joe Biden shakes hands with US President-elect Donald Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in

'Welcome back': Donald Trump returns to the White House to meet Joe Biden and begin transfer of power

Chanel Banks has been missing for over two weeks

Gossip Girl star Chanel Maya Banks missing for two weeks as family launch desperate search

Spanish people have been seen bracing for more flooding in drastic ways

Spain takes drastic measures as more flooding looms, as some locals even tie their cars up and wrap them in film

Hvaldimir died earlier this year

Russian 'spy' Beluga whale 'was being trained to guard Kremlin's military base but fled because it was a hooligan'

Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk to his cabinet when he becomes president

Elon Musk to lead US ‘DOGE’ department to cut bureaucracy which they claim will be ‘Manhattan Project of our time’

Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk to his cabinet when he becomes president

Donald Trump confirms tech billionaire Elon Musk will join cabinet when he becomes president

Several sandbags to contain the new flood in Aldaia, Valencia

Flood-hit areas of Spain brace for torrential rain forecast as orange alert issued

The husband of Erin Jayne Plummer has reportedly died in a suspected self-harm incident

Husband of Australian TV star dies suddenly two years after her suicide leaving three kids orphaned