Storm bands already were pulling roofs off houses and knocking down trees Tuesday morning in Puerto Cabezas, a city in one of Nicaragua’s poorest regions, Reuters reported, citing Guillermo Gonzalez, the chief of the nation’s disaster management agency.
“We’re really afraid. There are fallen poles, there’s flooding, roofs torn off,” Puerto Cabezas resident Carmen Enriquez said, according to Reuters.
A hurricane warning was in effect Tuesday for a roughly 150-mile stretch of Nicaraguan coastline, from the Honduras/Nicaragua border south to Sandy Bay Sirpi on east-central Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast.
“Catastrophic wind damage” is expected when the storm’s eyewall makes landfall on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast Tuesday morning or afternoon, the NHC said.
The storm could deliver life-threatening conditions in Nicaragua and other Central American nations for days, including nearly 3 feet of rain in isolated parts of Nicaragua and Honduras through Friday, the NHC said.
“This rainfall will lead to catastrophic, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, along with landslides in areas of higher terrain of Central America,” the NHC said.
The current forecast has the storm meandering the mountains of Nicaragua and Honduras before heading north toward Belize as a depression by Friday. The track and intensity of the storm remains uncertain after Friday.
As the 28th named storm in the Atlantic this season, it ties the record for the number of named storms in a single season set back in 2005.
Conditions deteriorating along the coast
The storm has the potential to be one of the worst flooding events Nicaragua has seen since Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed more than 10,000 people.
The storm is expected to deliver “catastrophic wind damage” wherever the eyewall smacks land, the NHC said.
Torrential rain, and resulting flooding and landslides, are expected to be among the main threats. The wind and storm surge threat should diminish throughout Tuesday, but the rain will last well into the week.
Rain forecasts through Sunday morning, according to the NHC:
• Much of Nicaragua and Honduras: Generally 15-25 inches, with isolated amounts up to 35 inches.
• Eastern Guatemala and Belize: Generally 10-20 inches, with isolated amounts up to 25 inches.
• Parts of Panama and Costa Rica: Generally 10-15 inches, with isolated amounts up to 25 inches.
• El Salvador and southeastern Mexico: Generally 5-10 inches, with isolated amounts up to 15 inches.
• Jamaica, southern Haiti, and the Cayman Islands: Generally 3-5 additional inches, with isolated storm totals over 15 inches.
CNN’s Madeline Holcombe, Hollie Silverman and Judson Jones contributed to this report.
