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dpa
Mexico City
The powerful storm Iota claimed at least 11 lives as it swept over parts of Central and South America.
The death toll includes six victims in Nicaragua, two in Colombia, one in El Salvador and one in Panama, according to official figures.
A person was also reported to have been killed in Honduras, though the death has not been officially confirmed.
Iota struck Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast on Monday as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 250 kilometres per hour. It later weakened and was downgraded to a tropical storm.
The storm was on Wednesday dissipating over El Salvador, though it is still expected to bring rains to parts of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua and El Salvador through Thursday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
“This rainfall will lead to significant, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” the center said. High waves were also expected to affect much of the Central American coast and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
Iota caused widespread damage in Nicaragua, where it destroyed homes and bridges, felled trees and electricity posts, and disrupted telecommunications, especially around the city of Puerto Cabezas.
More than 60,000 people were evacuated.
In northern Honduras, Iota worsened the damage that had already been caused by Hurricane Eta two weeks earlier.
On the Colombian island of Providencia, nearly the entire infrastructure was destroyed and thousands of families lost their homes.
A low pressure area could now appear in the south-western Caribbean, the Hurricane Center warned.
“Regardless of tropical cyclone formation, areas of heavy rain are possible during the next several days from Nicaragua southward across Central America and into Colombia. These rains could cause new flooding concerns, especially across previously inundated areas,” it said.
Hurricane Eta had previously killed at least 174 people and left about 100 missing in Central America.
Iota is already the 30th storm this year that has been strong enough to be given a name - the previous Atlantic record was 28.
So many strong storms have formed that the 21 names provided for them this year have long since been used up. Meteorologists therefore switched to the Greek alphabet for the first time in 15 years.
Mexico City
The powerful storm Iota claimed at least 11 lives as it swept over parts of Central and South America.
The death toll includes six victims in Nicaragua, two in Colombia, one in El Salvador and one in Panama, according to official figures.
A person was also reported to have been killed in Honduras, though the death has not been officially confirmed.
Iota struck Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast on Monday as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 250 kilometres per hour. It later weakened and was downgraded to a tropical storm.
The storm was on Wednesday dissipating over El Salvador, though it is still expected to bring rains to parts of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua and El Salvador through Thursday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.
“This rainfall will lead to significant, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” the center said. High waves were also expected to affect much of the Central American coast and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
Iota caused widespread damage in Nicaragua, where it destroyed homes and bridges, felled trees and electricity posts, and disrupted telecommunications, especially around the city of Puerto Cabezas.
More than 60,000 people were evacuated.
In northern Honduras, Iota worsened the damage that had already been caused by Hurricane Eta two weeks earlier.
On the Colombian island of Providencia, nearly the entire infrastructure was destroyed and thousands of families lost their homes.
A low pressure area could now appear in the south-western Caribbean, the Hurricane Center warned.
“Regardless of tropical cyclone formation, areas of heavy rain are possible during the next several days from Nicaragua southward across Central America and into Colombia. These rains could cause new flooding concerns, especially across previously inundated areas,” it said.
Hurricane Eta had previously killed at least 174 people and left about 100 missing in Central America.
Iota is already the 30th storm this year that has been strong enough to be given a name - the previous Atlantic record was 28.
So many strong storms have formed that the 21 names provided for them this year have long since been used up. Meteorologists therefore switched to the Greek alphabet for the first time in 15 years.
