Eta bashes Nicaragua as Category 4
Hurricane Eta made landfall Tuesday afternoon along the northeastern coast of Nicaragua as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane.
The storm was expected to bring “life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds, flash flooding and landslides across portions of Central America” this week, the National Hurricane Center said.
Heavy rain from Eta’s outer bands was already causing rivers to overflow across Central America.
As of 4 p.m. EST Tuesday, the center of Hurricane Eta was about 15 miles south-southwest of Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, the Hurricane Center said.
The storm had strengthened rapidly Monday. Winds at one point hit 150 mph.
On Tuesday afternoon, maximum sustained winds were near 140 mph with higher gusts. Weakening was expected to begin after the center moved inland later Tuesday. Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 25 miles from the center, and tropical-stormforce winds extended up to 125 miles.
Early Tuesday, Guillermo González, director of Nicaragua’s emergency management agency, said in a news conference that as Eta began to make landfall there were reports of corrugated metal
roofs flying off homes; trees, poles and power lines falling; and rivers rising in the coastal area.
No deaths or injuries were reported, he said.
The storm made landfall near Bilwi, the main coastal city in the region. About 10,000 people were in shelters in that city, and an equal number were sheltered in smaller towns across the region, he said. The area had been lashed with strong winds and rain for hours.
Authorities in Nicaragua and Honduras had moved people Monday from outer islands and low-lying areas to shelters. Residents scrambled to shore up their homes.
At a shelter in Bilwi, farmer Pedro Down waited late Monday for Eta’s arrival.
“When it comes it can rip off all the (roof) and destroy the house,” he said, cradling a baby in his arms. “So I came here to save our lives.”
Along Honduras’ northern Caribbean coast, torrential rains from Eta’s outer bands caused some rivers to overwhelm their banks Monday, forcing evacuations.
It could be only the beginning. The storm was forecast to spend the week over Central America, dumping rain measured in feet, not inches.
Forecasters said central and northern Nicaragua into much of Honduras could get 15 to 25 inches of rain. Heavy rains also were likely in eastern Guatemala, southern Belize and Jamaica.
A storm surge of about 21 feet above normal tides was possible for the coast of Nicaragua, forecasters said.
Eta is the 12th hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season and the 28th named Atlantic storm this season, tying the 2005 record for named storms, said Philip Klotzbach, meteorologist at Colorado State University, who specializes in Atlantic basin hurricane forecasts.
Eta is the strongest Atlantic hurricane this late in the calendar year since Otto in 2016, Klotzbach said.