MANAGUA (NICARAGUA) – Hurricane Eta wreaked havoc with major flooding and causing landslides as it swept through the coastline of Nicaragua and neighboring Honduras on Tuesday. It reportedly killed at least three people, putting the lives of a dozen of fishermen in danger.
Eta is considered one of the most powerful storms to hit Central America in years. It reached Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, after which hundreds of people were evacuated.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Eta was expected to cause “catastrophic” wind damage as the eye of the storm moved inland along the northeastern coast of Nicaragua.
The NHC said that when it struck the coast, Eta was blowing potentially devastating winds of 140 miles per hour (225 kph).
By 9 p.m. local time, Eta was a Category 2 storm with blowing winds of 105 mph (169 kph), the NHC said.
Nicaraguan media reported that two artisanal miners were killed by a mudslide. In Honduras, a 13-year-old girl lost her life in a landslide on her home, according to the fire department.
According to Robin Morales, a representative of the local population Meanwhile, about 60 fishermen were trapped in the eastern Mosquitia region of Honduras.
“If they aren’t rescued, I don’t think these people will remain alive for more than 24 hours,” Morales said.
Disaster management agency SINAPRED said that by early Tuesday, Eta had brought down trees and power lines and caused serious flooding in northeast Nicaragua. However, Vice President Rosario Murillo said the initial damage had been less than what everyone had feared.
Carmen Enriquez, a resident of Puerto Cabezas, said, “We’re really afraid, there are fallen poles, there’s flooding, roofs torn off, some of the zinc on my house fell off.”
The UNICEF said in a statement that around 1,227,000 people in Nicaragua, including nearly 500,000 children, were likely to be under threat from the storm’s fury.
Nicaragua on Monday saw the evacuation of at least 3,000 families, including fishermen, living in the most vulnerable villages.
Eta is forecast to move into northern Nicaragua through Wednesday afternoon and affect central Honduras on Thursday.