Hurricane Eta devastates the Caribbean coast of northern Central America, at Nicaragua and at Honduras, killed at least three people, said the emergency services.
L’hurricane, which moves with winds of 230 km / h and torrential rains and has caused flooding, on Tuesday (November 3) was the first victim in Honduras, a 13-year-old teenager, died in the collapse of her house.
And two men were killed while working in an artisanal mine in the locality of Bonanza in Nicaragua, the director of the Nicaraguan Red Cross, Auner Garcia, announced on television.
Decrease in intensity
The hurricane decreased in intensity from categories 4 to 2, with winds of 176 km / h towards an area called “Mining triangle”, an artisanal gold mining area in northeastern Nicaragua, according to the latest bulletin from the US Hurricane Monitoring Center (NHC).
Hurricane #Eta continues to move slowly inland over Nicaragua causing life-threatening storm surge, wind, and flooding conditions. For more details and the forecast during the next several days, visit https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/txT4VZvuHe
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) November 4, 2020
Eta is expected to reach this area this Wednesday morning as a Category 1 hurricane, with winds of 120 km / h, before transforming into a tropical storm in northern Nicaragua, then going to Honduras as a tropical depression at the end of the day, according to the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (Ineter).
The hurricane, which was slowly moving over the Caribbean Sea, had previously strengthened in its warm waters on Monday and Tuesday. Category 4, it made landfall on Tuesday around 6 a.m. local time (1 p.m. KST) south of Bilwi, the main town on the north coast of Nicaragua, also known as Puerto Cabezas.
« Neighborhoods are flooded and bridges under water ”
Tin roofs of houses in this poor region, home to some 100,000 people, mostly indigenous, were easily washed away by the hurricane, said miskito chief Kevin Lackwood of the coastal community of Prinzapolka, where the men remained to guard the houses evacuated by the women and children.
“Many trees have fallen and the road network is badly affected”, said Nicaraguan Minister of Infrastructure Oscar Mojica. The Wawa River, between Bilwi and the rest of the country, is in flood.
“Bilwi was hit hard. Neighborhoods on the outskirts are flooded and bridges underwater. Many roofs of houses have been washed away, and this continues because the hurricane is moving very slowly ”, said volunteer rescuer Kevin Gonzalez.
“The houses in the region are very vulnerable: they are wooden houses lined with plastic”, he explains.
“Night of terror”
The inhabitants endured for ten hours the pangs of the approach of the cyclone: “It was a night of terror because the gusts of wind made a noise similar to that of a tractor destroying everything in its path”, said Joel Quin, a 35-year-old resident of Bilwi who gazed in dismay at the rubble of his home.
Giovany Nelson, 34, talks about how he stayed “Locked in a room, hearing the wind destroying the roof” from his house. The power of the cyclone “Surprised us and filled us with anguish”, he adds.
Sudden floods
Nicaraguan authorities said they had evacuated 20,000 people from islets off the coast and coastal areas most exposed to the cyclone and flooding.
Nicaraguan Vice-President Rosario Murillo argued that Eta had “Not as catastrophic as expected in terms of material damage”.
The rains in Eta have also started to hit neighboring Honduras hard. A 13-year-old girl died in the rubble of a house in San Pedro Sula (north), which collapsed in a flooded neighborhood from where 400 people were evacuated.
“Logistics and telecommunications support”
Torrential rains fell on the ports of La Ceiba and Tela on Tuesday on the coast of Honduras (north). More than a hundred people were evacuated after the swollen rivers Lean and La Masica rose from their beds.
The World Food Program‘HIM-HER-IT (PAM) announced to bring a “Logistical and telecommunications support, with mobile depots (food), prefabricated offices, electric generators, radios and satellite links”.
In total, “About 520,000 inhabitants are confronted with the height of the hurricane”, according to WFP.
At Salvador, President Nayib Bukele said on the national radio and television station that more than 100,000 people from government, relief agencies, police and military were ready to help the people overcome the consequences of the hurricane and called for preventive measures.
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