[ad_1]
Iota, which formed at sea on Friday, was centered in the Caribbean about 610 miles east of the Nicaraguan-Honduran border with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph at 10 p.m. ET on Friday, said the National Hurricane Center.
The forecast calls for Iota to continue heading west and make landfall somewhere in Central America, potentially near the Honduras-Nicaragua border by Monday evening, CNN meteorologist Tyler Mauldin said.
Iota is expected to become a hurricane at sea this weekend. Upon landing, it is expected to be a major hurricane – at least Category 3 – with winds of at least 111 mph, the NHC said.
In addition to providing damaging winds, Iota could drop 8 to 20 inches of rain over Honduras and northern Nicaragua through Wednesday, the NHC said – bad news for an area hit by Hurricane Eta la last week.
Other areas would receive 3 to 10 inches of rain through Wednesday: Costa Rica, Panama, northern Colombia, southern Nicaragua, Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador, NHC said.
“This (Iota) rainfall would cause flash floods and significant and potentially fatal flooding, as well as landslides in areas of higher ground,” the NHC said on Friday.
Iota is the 30th named storm in the Atlantic this year – the strongest for a hurricane season in the Atlantic.
Central America devastated by Hurricane Eta
Eta passed through northern Nicaragua on November 3 as a Category 4 hurricane, and pounded that country along with Honduras, Guatemala and Belize for days with heavy rains. It has caused landslides and severe flooding and left dozens dead or missing.
The full extent of Eta’s damage likely won’t be known for a while. But the powerful storm, combined with the coronavirus pandemic, may be remembered as one of the worst natural disasters to hit the region.
More than 3.6 million people in Central America have been affected by the storm to varying degrees, the Red Cross said earlier this week.
Even before the storm, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala had poor public health systems battling Covid-19.
With thousands of people in shelters and hard-to-walk social distances, many fear the disease could spread. Hospitals there are also struggling with other storm and flood related illnesses, from dengue fever to cholera to yellow fever.
CNN’s Matt Rivers, Natalie Gallón and Taylor Ward contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link
