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Hurricane Eta reaches dangerous category 4 heading for Central America

2020-11-02T22:36:24.810Z


Eta is expected to make landfall in Nicaragua early Tuesday morning as a potentially devastating hurricane, in a particularly vulnerable low-resource region. It will also affect a good part of Honduras.


Eta became a hurricane on Monday morning and within hours it has intensified, reaching category 4 in the afternoon with winds of 130 miles per hour (215 kilometers), while crossing the Gulf of Mexico on its way to the Central American coasts.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC, in English) has warned that

the force majeure hurricane could cause flooding and landslides in central and northern Nicaragua

, where it is expected to make landfall in the early hours of Tuesday, and that it

will

also

affect a good part from Honduras

.

It is currently 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, and is moving at a speed of 9 miles per hour (15 kilometers) in that direction, where a hurricane watch has already been announced for the entire Atlantic coast.

[How and when to prepare for a hurricane or tropical storm]

Central and northern Nicaragua and much of Honduras could receive 15 to 25 inches (380 to 640 millimeters) of rain, and up to 35 inches (890 millimeters) in some regions, according to forecasts.

Showers were also likely in eastern Guatemala, southern Belize, and Jamaica.

In Nicaragua, storm surges could cause

sea ​​level rise of up to 1.5 feet (4.5 meters)

on the coast.

The NHC also warned of the risk of dangerous flash floods and landslides in high altitude areas.

This GeoColor satellite image taken on Monday, November 2, 2020 at 1 p.m. EDT and provided by the National Office for Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Hurricane Eta in the Gulf of Mexico approaching the border. from Honduras and Nicaragua.

(NOAA via AP) AP

With

the memory still alive of the devastating Hurricane Mitch

, which exactly 22 years ago left thousands of deaths as it passed through Central America, Nicaragua prepared on Monday to receive the impact of Eta.

The Nicaraguan government declared a red alert on Monday in the North Caribbean region, where the Naval Force evacuated the day before some 1,650 inhabitants of the Miskitos Cays, located off the North Caribbean coast, in light of the danger that the cyclone would hit with great intensity area.

[Storm Eta advances in the Caribbean.

It can hit Central America as a hurricane on Tuesday]

According to Guillermo González, director of the National System for the Prevention, Mitigation and Attention to Disasters (Sinapred), the evacuees were taken to “solidarity houses” in Bilwi, also called Puerto Cabezas, where some 66,000 people live.

Another similar number live in indigenous communities located on the North Caribbean coast and on the banks of the Coco River, which in that area forms part of the border with Honduras.

Although it no longer has the flow of decades ago, the river often overflows when there are storms.

VIDEO: How to Prepare for a Hurricane

In the Rio Coco area,

most of the houses in some 50 Miskito communities on the banks are built with bamboo and palm

, which makes them extremely vulnerable.

After making landfall, Eta is expected to move over the mountains of northern Nicaragua.

For this reason, the Government decreed since Saturday a preventive alert throughout the country and a surveillance alert in the northern Caribbean region and in the northern provinces of Jinotega and Nueva Segovia.

Eta is the 28th Atlantic named storm this season, and its formation tied the number of named storms recorded in 2005. However, this is the first time the Greek letter eta has been used as a storm name.

[Zeta makes landfall as a Category 2 hurricane in Louisiana.

It is the fifth storm to hit the state in 2020]

There is still a month of hurricane season left

, until November 30.

In 2005, Storm Zeta formed in late December, after the season.

This year, of the 28 named storms, 11 have become hurricanes and five have been considered force majeure, that is, Category 3 or more.

With information from With information from The Associated Press.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2020-11-02

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