Hurricane Iota reaches category 5 and continues to gain strength as it approaches Honduras and Nicaragua

Nicaragua and Honduras

are on high alert due to the approach to their coasts of Iota, the 13th hurricane of the current Atlantic season that has already reached the maximum category 5 and continues to gain strength, according to the latest bulletin from the National Hurricane Center (NHC, for its acronym in English). 

It is expected to hit an area of ​​the coastline between these two countries Monday night,

. 

Track of Hurricane Iota.NOAA

Both countries, as well as Guatemala and southern Mexico, were hit hard by Eta less than two weeks ago, which hit the same area as a Category 4 hurricane and caused hundreds of deaths and catastrophic damage. 

The area in which Iota is expected to make landfall is between

immediately adjacent to that area. 

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Iota has quickly strengthened between Sunday night and early Monday morning.

It already

(260 kilometers per hour), which means it has reached the maximum category 5. NHC meteorologists predict that by the time it reaches land it will be even more powerful, causing "catastrophic" winds. , dangerous storm surges and "extreme" rains in the affected areas. 

Before that, it is expected to pass through the island of Providencia, from which it was only separated by about 40 miles (65 km) at about 10 am this Monday, East Coast time, according to the NHC.

The island, which belongs to Colombia, is under a hurricane alert. 

Multiple people wade through a flooded road on Thursday, November 5, 2020 after the passage of Hurricane Eta, in Planeta, Honduras.

(AP Photo / Delmer Martínez) AP

In Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, Saturday and Sunday have been days of many people stocking up in supermarkets, given the looming emergency.

"We don't know what will happen, that's why we are supplying ourselves with food and water

," teacher Enrique Cáceres, who lives in the Morazán neighborhood, told the Efe news agency, crossed by a stream that causes damage to the area when it floods.

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Honduras is also suffering another emergency, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left more than 2,800 dead, while infections exceed 102,000.

When it was still a storm, Iota had already set the record for being the 30th named storm of this extraordinary Atlantic hurricane season.

The myriad of phenomena like this have focused attention on 

which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive systems.

Iota threatens to 

in a region where people continue to deal with the devastation of Eta.

This meteor struck Nicaragua just a week ago as a Category 4 hurricane, killing 

as torrential rains caused flooding and landslides in parts of Central America and Mexico.

It then passed through Cuba, the Florida Keys, and the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall again at Cedar Key, Florida, and hitting Florida and the Carolinas.

With information from EFE.