Iota strengthens to hurricane, could slam Central America

Iota strengthened to hurricane status Sunday, taking furious aim for Central American countries still reeling from Hurricane Eta’s devastating landfall that killed more than 120 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless less than two weeks ago.

Iota became the 13th hurricane of the season, two short of the record of 15 set in 2005, but it was 30th named storm of this historic hurricane season, two more than the previous record.

Iota was a Category 1 hurricane Sunday morning with sustained winds of 90 mph. The storm was moving westnorthwest at 9 mph, with its center located about 335 miles east of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua-honduras border.

“Rapid strengthening is expected,” said Daniel Brown, a meteorologist with the National Hurricane Center. “Iota is forecast to be an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane when it approaches Central America.”

The core of Iota was forecast to move across the Caribbean on Sunday and approach the coasts of northeastern Nicaragua and eastern Honduras late Monday.

Eta was a Category 4 storm when it made landfall in Nicaragua on Nov. 3 before tearing a wide path of destruction through Honduras and Guatemala the next day. Entire communities remained underwater.

The death toll in Honduras alone was estimated at more than 50, with damage from the torrential rains, catastrophic flooding and devastating landslides estimated at more than $5 billion. Tent cities line many streets where homes remain unlivable.

Eta also swept across much of the U.S. south, dumping heavy rain across parts of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas after landfall Thursday north of Tampa Bay.

“It is possible that Iota could track north of Honduras, allowing the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Eta to be spared,” said Accuweather Senior Me

teorologist Rob Miller. “But it’s even more likely that Honduras and Nicaragua take a direct hit from Iota.”

Nicaragua and Honduras issued hurricane warnings amid concerns that some sodden areas of those nations could be swamped by a storm surge of up to 15 feet and rainfall totals of up to

3 feet.

“This rainfall would lead to significant, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” Brown said.

Iota’s name marks the deepest the NHC has gone into the Greek alphabet during one storm season.

ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Banana field workers come across a flooded road while evacuating the area in El Progreso, Yoro department, in Honduras before the expected arrival of Hurricane Iota.