During Monday, category 5 hurricane Iota has made landfall on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast.
With catastrophic winds and deadly storm surges, the dangerous hurricane leaves huge damage to the same part of Central America already battered by equally strong Hurricane Eta less than two weeks ago.
According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, lota weakened slightly by Monday night to Category 4, with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (250 kph).
Iota is a “bigger” storm than Eta in terms of how wide the windfield is. That means more people will feel the effects of the storm. This is the record 30th named storm and strongest hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic Season.
As the National Hurricane Center warns:
“Through Thursday, heavy rainfall from Iota will likely lead to life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding across portions of Central America. Flooding and mudslides in Honduras and Nicaragua could be exacerbated by Hurricane Etas recent effects there, resulting in significant to potentially catastrophic impacts.”
The storm struck near the town of Haulover, about 30 miles south of Puerto Cabezas, at approximately 10:40 p.m., the National Hurricane Center said. It had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, just shy of the 157 mph needed to be a Category 5, the most powerful ranking a hurricane can have.
Iota was hitting the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras with torrential rains and strong winds while the western edge began battering the Nicaraguan coast.
1045 PM EST Update: Extremely dangerous Hurricane #Iota makes landfall along the coast of northeastern Honduras. More info: https://t.co/tW4KeFW0gB pic.twitter.com/mJ4nQ2GmLy
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) November 17, 2020
#Iota is now a Category 5 #hurricane with max winds of 160 mph. Iota is the latest Atlantic calendar year Category 5 hurricane on record. Old record was November 8 by the Cuba Hurricane of 1932. pic.twitter.com/unTdbM5U8G
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) November 16, 2020
Source: CBS News/27abcWKNOW