Tropical Storm Eta makes landfall in Florida after killing at least a hundred people in Mexico and Central America

Tropical storm Eta made landfall in Florida during the early hours of Monday, after crossing Cuba and devastating Mexico and Central America, where it has left at least a hundred dead and 200 missing, in addition to a landscape of destruction with still incalculable damage. .

The south of the state suffered on Sunday night and from the effects of Eta, with floods and some 35,000 people without electricity.

The situation is expected to worsen as the hours pass and the tropical storm to become a Category 1 hurricane around noon (local time, six hours more in mainland Spain).

According to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), Eta will leave "heavy rains and flash floods" that could endanger the lives of residents, who will also suffer the effects of strong winds and storm surge.

Local authorities have closed beaches, ports, public transport and covid testing centers, as well as urging citizens to stay home.

Eta arrives in the United States after crossing Cuba, where it caused significant floods and forced 74,000 people to be evacuated to safe places, 8,000 of them to shelters set up by the authorities.

The island will continue Monday under the effects of heavy rains, as will parts of Jamaica and the Bahamas, the NHC said.

An extraordinary meeting of the Government, headed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, concluded that "no loss of life or significant damage to homes had been reported," the state news broadcast reported.

Eta hit Nicaragua last Tuesday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane and weakened as it made landfall in a tropical depression, but caused torrential rains that have left at least around a hundred dead and close to missing in Mexico and Central America, according to the last balance collected by Efe.

The most affected country has been Guatemala, where there are at least 25 deaths and some 150 missing persons.

Rescuers and the military searched over the weekend for the bodies of the inhabitants of an indigenous village in the north of the country that was left under the mud after a landslide.

In Honduras, authorities reported on Sunday the death of at least 26 people and another six disappeared due to landslides.

According to the local press, Eta has left 65,900 people incommunicado in 68 regions and another 27,000 evacuated.

There are also a hundred roads affected and a score of bridges destroyed.

Torrential rains have also caused damage in Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador (at least 25 deaths) and Mexico, where the government on Sunday raised the number of deaths in the southeast of the country to 27. The most affected states are Chiapas and Tabasco .

Chiapas authorities reported more than 37,000 victims and some 16,000 houses with damage, more than 150 roads with interrupted sections and 11 bridges destroyed, among other incidents.