Tropical Storm Iota moves into Honduras
Hurricane Iota rapidly weakened after making landfall as a Category 4 storm with winds of 155 mph Monday night — just 15 miles south of where Hurricane Eta came ashore two weeks ago — but the hurricane has still made history.
Iota was stronger, based on central pressure, than 2005 s Hurricane Katrina and is the first storm with a Greek alphabet name to hit Category 5, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said. It also set the record for the latest Category 5 hurricane on record, beating the record set by the Nov. 8, 1932, Cuba Hurricane.
Iota, the 2020 Atlantic season’s 13th hurricane, had been at Category 5 status for most of the day Monday, with top sustained winds of 160 mph, but dropped to Category 4 several hours before its landfall near the town of Haulover, Nicaragua, at about 10:40 p.m.
Iota moved inland across northern Nicaragua and across southern Honduras on Tuesday.
Iota was at tropical storm strength and located about 35 miles southeast of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as of 7 p.m. Tuesday. It had picked up speed and was moving west at 12 mph, though its winds had dropped to 50 mph.
Iota is expected bring life-threatening storm surge of 5 to 10 feet to the region, where hurricane and storm surge warnings were in effect.
Flooding and rains of 10 to 20 inches — with isolated totals of 30 inches — are also forecast in Honduras, northern Nicaragua, Guatemala and southern Belize, the hurricane center said.
This same area was devastated by Hurricane Eta on Nov. 3, which barreled ashore in coastal Nicaragua near Honduras, at Category 4 strength. The storm brought deadly flooding and storm surge. At least 120 were killed.
The extent of Iota’s 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, said Guillermo González, director of Nicaragua’s emergency management agency. More than 40,000 people were in shelters.
Later, Nicaragua Vice President and first lady Rosario Murillo said that a brother and sister, ages 11 and 8, had drowned in the community of La Pinuela trying to cross the swollen Solera River. There were reports of others missing in the same area.
Named after the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet, Iota (pronounced ee-ohtah), could travel to the Pacific Ocean, becoming a rare crossover storm.
Meanwhile, an area of low pressure is forming in the central and southwestern Caribbean and is expected to move west, the hurricane center said. It has a 30% chance of developing in the next five days and could become a depression this weekend, forecasters said.
Iota became “the strongest hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season” on Monday morning once its maximum sustained winds reached 155 mph, according to the Weather Channel.
This hurricane season has been marked by storms — such as Hannah, Laura, Sally, Teddy, Gamma, Delta and Zeta — that have “rapidly intensified,” meaning a gain of at least 35 mph in wind speed in a 24-hour period. Iota doubled that mark in the overnight hours Sunday, going from a Category 2 hurricane to a Category 4.
The 2020 hurricane season became the busiest in recorded history when Tropical Storm Theta formed on Nov. 9.
Only 2005 has had more hurricanes on record, at 15, Klotzbach added.
The next named storm would be Kappa.