Category 4 Hurricane Eta: updates ahead of an expected ‘catastrophic’ landfall
Category 4 Hurricane Eta was pummeling northeastern Nicaragua as its eyewall meandered just offshore Tuesday afternoon, ahead of what could be days of flooding in parts of Central America, the US National Hurricane Center said.
Written content by Jason Hanna, CNN
(CNN)- By noon Tuesday (1 p.m. ET), the storm’s eyewall was closely approaching Nicaragua’s Caribbean shore roughly 20 miles south-southeast of the city of Puerto Cabezas, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph, the NHC said.
“Catastrophic wind damage” is expected when landfall happens on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast later Tuesday afternoon, the NHC said.
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. The news outlet cited 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 Tuesday morning, according to Reuters.
To the north, homes also were being flooded Tuesday morning in Lancetilla, Honduras, amid heavy rains, pictures distributed by Getty Images show.
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.
Dangerous storm surge of up to 21 feet above normal tide also could crash onshore in parts of Nicaragua, Central America’s poorest nation, the NHC said. Read more from CNN.
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