Tropical depression Eta will continue to hit a large part of Central America in the coming days, where at least 13 people have already lost their lives.
In the next few hours it will head to Belize, the Cayman Islands, Cuba and southern Florida, where it could make landfall by the end of the weekend, according to the latest bulletin from the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Eta advanced this Thursday on Honduras, where it is generating such heavy rains that they have overflowed rivers, flooded communities and caused landslides in several areas of Central America where it has destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes.
Destruction in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, by Hurricane Eta.Getty Images
The storm, which made landfall in Nicaragua on Tuesday as a Category 4 hurricane, was moving slowly across the region and the NHC predicts it will regain strength when it re-emerges into the open ocean in the Caribbean heading for Cuba and Florida.
The depression has been disorganized after impacting the mountains in Central America but had maximum sustained winds of 30 miles per hour (45 kilometers per hour) and was moving west-northwest at 9 miles per hour (15 kilometers per hour).
Eta could still shed between 15 and 25 inches of rain in some parts of Nicaragua and Honduras, which could increase up to 40 inches in certain isolated areas.
Destruction in Puerto Cabezas by Hurricane Eta.Getty Images
In its advance through Central American territory, Guatemala reported four deaths on Thursday, in addition to seven other victims in Honduras and two more in Nicaragua.
Three people were killed in the central Guatemalan department of Quiché due to landslides in their communities, including two children who were together when their house collapsed, local firefighters reported.
The president, Alejandro Giammattei, reported that a fourth person died in Chinautla, on the outskirts of the capital, also due to a landslide.
In Honduras, the rains mainly affected the northern part of the country, where some communities were flooded.
The Villanueva community, south of the city of San Pedro Sula, woke up under the waters due to the overflowing of the Ulúa River, although no victims were reported.
Even before Eta's eye reached Honduras, hundreds of people were forced from their homes by the floods.
Floods in Honduras due to tropical depression Eta.Getty Images
A 12-year-old girl died Tuesday from a landslide in San Pedro Sula, said Marvin Aparicio, head of the Incident Command System of the Permanent Contingency Commission (Copeco), while a 15-year-old teenager drowned while trying to cross. a river swollen by the rains, according to Edy Chacón, mayor of the town of Sulaco, in central Honduras.
Copeco has officially registered only two deaths, but the Fire Department spokesman, Óscar Triminio, confirmed to AP that the number rises to seven people, four in Tela, one in Santa Bárbara, one in Cortés and another in Sulaco, Yoro .
“The information was sent to us by the Municipal Secretary of the community of San Antonio, about the death of a girl buried in the ground on Wednesday morning and who was rescued by the residents of the community known as La Fortaleza, a mountainous sector, located in Tela. "Triminio specified.
“In the same area, in the upper part of the village, there was another strong landslide that buried a house with three people (a mother and her two children) who have not been rescued.
There is no way to reach that community and there is no telephone signal, "he added.
In Nicaragua, two miners perished in a landslide.
Eta made landfall Tuesday afternoon south of Bilwi, a city of about 60,000 inhabitants in northern Nicaragua, where Civil Defense brigades were still clearing streets blocked by uprooted trees on Thursday.
The powerful hurricane Eta makes landfall in Nicaragua and hits the interior of the country with force
Nov. 3, 202001: 55
[How and when to prepare for a hurricane or tropical storm]
Eta's force also dislodged power lines and roofs of houses
, leaving entire neighborhoods flooded.
“The rubble removal teams are starting to work and we still cannot take stock of what happened.
We have seen very humble houses completely destroyed, ”said Ivania Díaz, an official from the Bilwi mayor's office.
Destruction in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, by Hurricane Eta.Getty Images
Cuba and Florida in the sights of Eta
Weather forecasts indicate that on Friday Eta will go back to the Caribbean Sea, where it will regain the strength of a tropical storm and will head towards the island of Cuba and the US mainland in Florida.
It is also expected to strike Belize and the Cayman Islands.
[Zeta makes landfall as a Category 2 hurricane in Louisiana. It is the fifth storm to hit the state in 2020]
The NHC predicts rainfall accumulations in the Cayman Islands, as well as in parts of Cuba of 5 to 10 inches, which in isolated cases can be up to 20 inches, in southeastern Mexico 3 to 5 inches of additional rain of up to 15 inches in Jamaica.
On Saturday, Eta is expected to affect Cuba and
reach the southern tip of Florida by Sunday night or Monday morning
.
Although it is not yet possible for experts to calculate the intensity of the winds or the amount of rain that will fall on Florida, it is recommended that the public be prepared for rainy conditions.
This Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through November 30, has broken records with 28 named storms formed, 11 of which have made landfall in the United States, though none in Florida so far.
With information from AP and The Weather Channel
