Hurricane Iota hits Nicaragua threatening catastrophic damage

Hurricane Iota has made landfall on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, threatening catastrophic damage to the same part of Central America already battered by equally strong Hurricane Eta less than two weeks ago.

Iota had intensified into a dangerous Category 5 storm early on Monday, but the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said it weakened slightly to Category 4, with maximum sustained winds of 155mph (250km/h). It made landfall about 30 miles (45km) south of the Nicaraguan city of Puerto Cabezas, also known as Bilwi.

The storm came ashore just 15 miles (25km) south of where Hurricane Eta made landfall on 3 November, also as a Category-4 storm. Eta’s torrential rains had saturated the soil in the region, leaving it prone to new landslides and floods, and residents were also worried about about a storm surge with Iota..

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Iota’s outer edge had already been hitting the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras with torrential rains and strong winds.

In Bilwi, business owner Adán Artola Schultz braced himself in the doorway of his house as strong gusts of wind and rain drover water in torrents down the street. Wind ripped away the metal roof structure from a substantial two-storey home and blew it away like paper.

The Weather Channel
(@weatherchannel)

BREAKING: Hurricane #Iota has made landfall in Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm.

Iota made landfall only 15 miles from where Hurricane #Eta made landfall just 13 days ago. pic.twitter.com/Y4MDDVSR2o

November 17, 2020

“It is like bullets,” he said of the sound of metal structures banging and buckling in the wind. “This is double destruction,” he said, referring to the damage wrought by Eta. “This is coming in with fury,” said Artola Schultz.

Cairo Jarquin, Nicaragua emergency response project manager for Catholic Relief Services, visited Bilwi and smaller coastal communities on Friday. In Wawa Bar, Jarquin said he found “total destruction” from Eta. People had been working furiously to put roofs back over their families’ heads, but now Iota threatened to take what was left.

Hurricane Hunters
(@53rdWRS)

Here is one more look into the eye of Hurricane #Iota. ✈️🌀#ReserveReady #ReserveResilient pic.twitter.com/cJJ0eojtfP

November 17, 2020

“The little that remained standing could be razed,” Jarquin said. There were other communities farther inland that he was not even able to reach due to the condition of roads. He said he heard that Wawa bar was evacuated again Saturday.

Evacuations were conducted from low-lying areas in Nicaragua and Honduras near their shared border through the weekend.

The Nicaraguan vice president, Rosario Murillo, who is also the first lady, said that the government had done everything necessary to protect lives, including the evacuation of thousands.

Iota is the record 30th named storm of this year’s dangerously busy Atlantic hurricane season. It’s also the ninth storm to rapidly intensify this season. Such activity has focused attention on climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms.

Iota was forecast to drop 10 to 20 inches (250-500 mm) of rain in northern Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and southern Belize, with as much as 30 inches (750mm) in isolated spots. Costa Rica and Panama could also experience heavy rain and possible flooding.