Eta to regain strength, bring rain, wind to South Florida

Former Hurricane Eta has all but fallen apart over northwestern Honduras but is still forecast to regain someof its strengthandmay impact South Florida early next week, the National Hurricane Center said.

Eta is expected to be a tropical storm as it passes close to the state, but much of South Florida north of Homestead is no longer in the forecast cone.

Still, the storm is still far away and the track and intensity could change. Forecasters warned that all of southern Florida should be ready.

“It should be noted that while Eta regaining hurricane strength cannot be ruled out,” forecasters said, “there is little support for that in the current guidance.”

Eta is expected to stay over land in Central America until it emerges in the northwesternCaribbeanSea on Friday. At that point, the stormis likely toformanew eye and be swept northwest by a high pressure system over the Gulf ofMexico.

Those steering winds will probably keepEta from intensifying much but also will make the storm track less predictable.

“There could be some significant jumps or changes,” said Robert Molleda, warning coordinator meteorologist for the NationalWeather Service in Miami.

Forecasters said South Florida should be prepared for heavy rain and gusty winds. Making matters worse, it’s been awet fall so far and the ground is saturated withwater.

A flood watch could go into effect this weekend. South Florida could see between 8 and 10 inches of rain between Thursday and Monday with the heaviest rain coming over the weekend.

As of Thursday night, Eta was moving offshore near San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with wind speeds of about 35 miles per hour.

Eta made landfall in northeastern Nicaragua Tuesday afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane, with catastrophic 140mphwinds. Eta has pummeled parts of Central America bringing life-threateningstormsurge, catastrophicwindsandflash flooding.

On Thursday afternoon, Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei said

As afternoon storm clouds roll in, constructionworkers assemble a construction crane for a newapartment building underway on FederalHighway andWashington Street inHollywood on Thursday. a water-soaked mountainside inthe central part of the country had slid down onto the town of San Cristobal Verapaz, buryinghomesand leaving at least 25 dead.

Two other slides in

Huehuetenango had killed at least 12 more, he said. EarlierThursday, fiveothers had been killed in smaller slides in Guatemala.

Guatemala’s toll was on top of 13 victims in Honduras

and two in Nicaragua. Panamanian authorities reported eight missing.