Category 5 Hurricane Iota was just off Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast Monday evening, and the powerful storm was likely to bring catastrophic damage to the same part of Central America that was battered by Hurricane Eta less than two weeks ago.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Iota had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph. It was centered about 35 miles east-southeast of the Nicaraguan city of Puerto Cabezas, also known as Bilwi, and moving westward at 9 mph. 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.
Authorities warned that Iota would probably come ashore over areas where Eta’s torrential rains saturated the soil, leaving them prone to new landslides and floods, and that the storm surge could reach 15 to 20 feet above normal tides.
That storm surge was on the mind of Yasmina Wriedt on Monday in Bilwi’s El Muelle neighborhood, tight against the sea.
The situation doesn’t look good at all, Wriedt said. We woke up without electricity, with rain, and the surf is getting really high.
Wriedt, who works for the small-scale fishing organization Piquinera, said the roof of her house was blown off in Eta less than two weeks ago. We repaired it as best we could; now I think the wind will take it again, because they say [Iota] is even stronger, Wriedt said, the sound of hammering echoing around her as neighbors boarded windows and reinforced roofs.
During Eta, the surf came up to just behind her house, where she lives with eight members of her family. Today I’m afraid again about losing my house, and I’m frightened for all of us who live in this neighborhood.
Wriedt said some neighbors had left the area, but most have stayed. We’re almost all here, she said. Neither the army nor the government came to move us.
Cairo Jarquin, Nicaragua emergency response project manager for Catholic Relief Services, visited Bilwi and smaller coastal communities 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 Iota threatened to take what was left.
The little that remained standing could be razed, Jarquin said. There were other communities farther inland that he was not able to reach due to the condition of the roads. He said he heard that Wawa Bar was evacuated again Saturday.
Evacuations were being conducted from low-lying areas in Nicaragua and Honduras near their shared border through the weekend.
Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is also the first lady, said Monday that the government had done everything necessary to protect lives, including evacuating thousands. She added that Taiwan had donated 800 tons of rice to help those affected by the storms.
Limborth Bucardo, who rode out Eta with his wife and two children at home, this time decided to move in with relatives in a safer neighborhood. He said many people had moved into churches in Bilwi.
We hadn’t finished repairing our houses and settling in when another hurricane comes, Bucardo said. The shelters in Bilwi are already full, packed with people from [surrounding] communities.
Iota is the record 30th named storm of this year’s extraordinarily busy Atlantic hurricane season. It’s also the ninth storm to rapidly intensify this season, a dangerous phenomenon that is happening more often. Such activity has focused attention on climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms.
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