Weakened but still powerful Eta crawls into Nicaragua
MANAGUA, Nicaragua — The heart of powerful Hurricane Eta moved ashore in Nicaragua on Tuesday with devastating winds and rains that had already destroyed rooftops and caused rivers to overflow.
The hurricane had sustained winds of 110 mph, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, down from a peak of 150 mph.
Even before it made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, Honduras reported the first death after a mudslide trapped a girl.
Tuesday afternoon, the strong Category 2 hurricane crawled inland from the coast, about 25 miles southwest of coastal Puerto Cabezas or Bilwi, and it was moving west at about 5 mph.
Landfall came hours after it had been expected. Eta’s eye had hovered just offshore through Monday night and Tuesday morning.
The winds uprooted trees and ripped roofs apart, scattering corrugated metal through the streets of Bilwi, the main coastal city in the region. The city’s regional hospital abandoned its building, moving patients to a local technical school.
“It was an intense night for everyone in Bilwi, Waspam and the communities along the northern coast,” Yamil Zapata, local Bilwi representative of the ruling Sandinista Front, told local Channel 4 on Tuesday.
Guillermo Gonzalez, director of the country’s emergency management agency, said in a news conference that there were reports of corrugated metal roofs flying off homes, trees, poles and power lines falling and rivers rising in the coastal area.
There were no reported injuries or deaths in Nicaragua, he said.
About 10,000 people were in shelters in Bilwi and an equal number in smaller towns across the region, he said. The area had already been lashed with strong winds and heavy rain for hours.
The storm has been drenching neighboring Honduras with rains since at least Sunday and the country reported its first death attributed to Eta early Tuesday.
A 12-year-old girl died in a mudslide in San Pedro Sula, the main population center in northern Honduras, said Marvin Aparicio, director of the national system of incident commands for Honduras’ emergency management agency.
In Honduras, there were at least 559 people affected by flooding who had to move to shelters or go to relatives’ homes, he said. At least 25 people had been rescued, he said. His agency reported at least six rivers with significant flooding.
This could be only the beginning of Eta’s destruction. The storm was forecast to spend much of the week over Central America.
Forecasters said central and northern Nicaragua and much of Honduras could get 15 to 25 inches of rain, with 35 inches in isolated areas. Heavy rains also were likely in eastern Guatemala, southern Belize and Jamaica.
A storm surge of around 15 feet above normal tides was possible for the coast of Nicaragua, forecasters said.
Eta is the 28th named Atlantic storm this season, tying the 2005 record for named storms. It’s the first time the Greek letter Eta has been used as a storm name.
Hurricane season ends Nov. 30.