Hurricane Iota caused severe flooding on Tuesday, although it was weakening. It whirled through Central America, blowing up swollen rivers, throwing roofs on streets and killing at least nine people in the area.
Iota, the strongest storm ever recorded in Nicaragua, hit the coast late Monday, bringing winds of nearly 150 mph and flooding villages that were hit by the effects of Hurricane Eta just two weeks ago.
But winds had dropped to 80 km / h on Tuesday night when Iota weakened to a tropical storm, but it continued to rain heavily, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Iota soaked already saturated towns and villages as it pulled inland across southern Honduras and, as authorities reported, many people were missing and some of the worst hit areas were still cut off.
The Honduran government closed bridges and highways across the country on Tuesday and opened more than 600 emergency shelters, where around 13,000 residents sought refuge.
The double strike from Eta and Iota marked the first time since records began that two major hurricanes had formed in the Atlantic Basin in November. The Nicaraguan port of Puerto Cabezas, which was still partially flooded and littered with debris left by Eta, again bore the brunt of the hit.
Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo said at least six people died when they were dragged down by raging rivers.
Two people died on Providencia Island, part of the Colombian Caribbean archipelago near the coast of Central America after it was cut off by Iota, President Ivan Duque said Tuesday evening.
Almost the entire infrastructure in Providencia, in which around 6,000 people live, had been damaged or destroyed.
Panama’s government said a person died in their western Ngabe-Bugle region due to conditions caused by the storm.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said flooding from Iota, according to Eta, could cause a disaster.
“We are very concerned about the potential for deadly landslides in these areas as the soil is already completely saturated,” said IFRC spokesman Matthew Cochrane at a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday.
According to authorities, around 100,000 Nicaraguans and Hondurans had been evacuated from their homes.
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