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Hurricane Iota nearing Nicaragua as catastrophic Category 5

A pregnant woman is carried out of an area flooded by water brought by Hurricane Eta in Planeta, Honduras, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020. The storm that hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday had become more of a vast tropical rainstorm, but it was advancing so slowly and dumping so much rain that much of Central America remained on high alert. (AP Photo/Delmer Martinez)
A pregnant woman is carried out of an area flooded by water brought by Hurricane Eta in Planeta, Honduras, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020. The storm that hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday had become more of a vast tropical rainstorm, but it was advancing so slowly and dumping so much rain that much of Central America remained on high alert. (AP Photo/Delmer Martinez) A pregnant woman is carried out of an area flooded by water brought by Hurricane Eta in Planeta, Honduras, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020. The storm that hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday had become more of a vast tropical rainstorm, but it was advancing so slowly and dumping so much rain that much of Central America remained on high alert. (AP Photo/Delmer Martinez)

By Associated Press 5 min read

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) – Tremendously powerful Category 5 Hurricane Iota was just off Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast Monday evening and was likely to bring catastrophic damage to the same part of Central America already battered by a powerful Hurricane Eta less than two weeks ago.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 kph). It was centered about 35 miles (55 kilometers) east-southeast of the Nicaraguan city of Puerto Cabezas, also known as Bilwi, and moving westward at 9 mph (15 kph). 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 it prone to new landslides and floods, and that the storm surge could reach 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 meters) above normal tides.

That storm surge was on the mind of Yasmina Wriedt on Monday in Bilwi’s El Muelle neighborhood, sitting 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.”