Hurricane Iota weakens after making landfall in Nicaragua

Iota made landfall Monday on Nicaragua's northern Caribbean coast as a maximum Category 5 hurricane, accompanied by catastrophic winds, rain and storm surge.

As of 10:40 pm (0340 GMT Tuesday), it had dropped slightly to a Category 4, packing maximum sustained winds of 155 miles (250 kilometers) per hour.

Authorities had been rushing to evacuate thousands of people from coastal areas of Nicaragua and Honduras, in the immediate path of the maximum-level hurricane.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The storm had already left one person dead as it swept the Colombian Caribbean island territory of Providencia, where it caused widespread damage.

"This powerful hurricane Iota is already on the front line, it's already on land. At the moment, the eye of the hurricane is already touching the border of the Haulover coast in the Caribbean," the director of meteorology at the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER), told a press conference.

The NHC forecast that Iota would weaken rapidly as it moved further inland and would dissipate over Central America by Wednesday.

Colonel John Fredy Sepulveda, the police chief on Providencia, said the local hospital had lost part of its roof and the territory of around 6,000 people was without power.

Central America and southern Mexico are still reeling from Hurricane Eta, which devastated crops and washed away hillsides after landing near Puerto Cabezas two weeks ago, killing dozens. Many towns are still partially flooded, and the land is waterlogged from the earlier storm.

The unprecedented 2020 hurricane season comes as Central America is facing an economic crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic, with experts warning the compounding hardship could worsen infections, spread hunger, and fuel a new round of migration from the region.

Iota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet.

Warmer seas caused by climate change are making hurricanes stronger for longer after landfall, scientists say.

Along with the wind, Iota will raise sea levels as much as 20 feet (6 meters) above normal tides. It is expected to quickly weaken inland, but will dump as much as 30 inches (76 cm) of rain over the next few days.

Shelters in Nicaragua, already stretched by those made homeless by Eta, were being overwhelmed by new arrivals, Eufemia Hernandez, coordinator of a center at Uraccan University, told AFP.

In Bilwi, residents spent the day desperately trying to secure roofs of flimsy wooden homes with the same zinc sheets ripped off by Eta.

Many people were wrapping their belongings in plastic bags to protect them from the coming rains.

Earlier in the day, governments from Panama to Guatemala rushed to move people away from hillsides, volcanoes and bodies of water. The World Food Programme said millions of people already urgently needed food aid in the wake of Eta.

The Miskito region straddling Honduras and Nicaragua raced to get people to safety before a forecast direct hit from Iota. Its eye was about 35 miles (55 km) east-southeast of Puerto Cabezas after clipping the Colombian islands of San Andres and Providencia before dawn, cutting off electricity.

Many of the people of Miskito are descendants of indigenous groups along with Africans who escaped from slavery and those castaways believed to have survived a 17th-century slave shipwreck.

Local media reported that more than 175,000 people had been evacuated since Saturday, especially in areas previously flooded by Eta, including the industrial Sula Valley, north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

The NHC warned that Iota would deposit 10 to 20 inches (250 to 500 mm) of rain on Honduras, northern Nicaragua, southeast Guatemala and southern Belize, with isolated totals of up to 30 inches.

(with inputs from agencies)