No fatalities reported as hurricane Iota wreaks havoc in Nicaragua
Hurricane Iota has torn across Nicaragua, roaring ashore as a Category 4 storm along almost exactly the same Caribbean coast that was recently devastated by an equally powerful hurricane.
The extent of the damage was unclear because much of the affected region was without electricity and phone and internet service, and strong winds hampered radio transmissions.
Preliminary reports from the coast included toppled trees and electric poles and roofs stripped from homes and businesses, but no deaths or injuries, said Guillermo Gonzalez, director of Nicaragua's emergency management agency.
More than 40,000 people were in shelters.
A day earlier, Iota intensified into a Category 5 storm, but it weakened as it neared the coast and made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 155mph.
The system came a shore about 30 miles south of the Nicaraguan city of Puerto Cabezas, also known as Bilwi.
By midday on Tuesday, Iota had diminished to a tropical storm and was moving inland over northern Nicaragua.
It had maximum sustained winds of 65mph and was spinning westwards at 12mph.
The storm was forecast to cross southern Honduras late on Tuesday.
Aid agencies struggled to reach their local contacts, and the government said in a statement that at least 35 towns in the east and north had no phone service.
Nicaragua' s telecommunications ministry said phone and broadband provider Columbus Networks was offline because of flooding in Bilwi.
As the storm moved westward, flooding became a top concern. The Tola River topped its banks, and western Nicaragua, along the Pacific coast, was forecast to receive the most rain.
Nicaragua' s meteorology director, Marcio Baca, said areas where the soil was already saturated would receive 6in-7in of additional rain.
Iota came ashore just 15 miles south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall on November 3, also as a Category 4 storm.
Et a triggered flash floods and mudslides in parts of Central America and Mexico and killed more than 130 people.
"This hurricane is definitely worse" than Eta, Jason Bermudez, a university student from Bilwi, said as screeching winds preceded Iota's arrival.
Many houses lost roofs, fences and fruit trees.
"We will never forget this year," Mr Bermudez said.
Cairo Jarquin, emergency response project manager in Nicaragua for Catholic Relief Services, was in the area where Iota made landfall on Friday.
He said the primary concerns for people trying to survive after Eta were drinking water and shelter. Yesterday, he was unable to reach his local contacts on the coast.
Even before Iota hit Nicaragua, it scrap ed over the tiny Colombian island of Providencia, more than 155 miles off Nicaragua's coast.
Colombian President Ivan Duque said one person was killed and 98% of the island's infrastructure was "affected".
Providencia is in habited almost exclusively by the descendants of African slaves and British colonisers, who speak an English version of Creole as their native language.