Nicaragua – AFP
Hurricane “Julia” hit the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, at dawn on Sunday, before entering its territory, according to the US National Hurricane Center and the country’s authorities, while several countries in Central America declared a state of alert in anticipation of its passage.
The US National Hurricane Center said in a tweet on its Twitter account: “Satellite and radar data in Nicaragua show that the eye of (Hurricane) Julia made landfall in Nicaragua along the coast near Pearl Lagoon at 07:15 GMT, Sunday.” The center added that the speed of the hurricane was 136 kilometers per hour when it hit land.
The speed of the hurricane was 120 kilometers per hour when it passed near the islands of San Andres and Providencia, which together with Santa Catalina make up the Colombian archipelago with a population of about 48 thousand people in the Caribbean Sea.
Marcio Baca, director of meteorology at the Nicaraguan Institute of Regional Studies (Inter), said: This storm has gradually expanded with increasing intensity.
High winds and torrential rain began to hit the city and the autonomous region of Bluefields on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua (east) around midnight on Sunday.
State media reported that they had received information about uprooted roofs, fallen trees and power outages in the town of Bluefields.
The US National Hurricane Center said: “Julia” will move after crossing the territory of Nicaragua into the Pacific Ocean, where it is expected to have turned into a tropical storm.
In Bluefields, fishermen secured their boats, while locals rushed to shops and banks to stock up on supplies and withdraw cash.
“We have to prepare with food, a little bit of everything, because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” said carpenter Javier Duarte, who is praying for the storm to derail and save his life. The population of the city of Bluefields is about sixty thousand people.
The American Center said: It is possible that floods and landslides may threaten the lives of residents, due to heavy rains over Central America and southern Mexico until early next week.
alert
The National Authority for Disaster Prevention in Nicaragua (Sinaprid) put the entire country, on Saturday, on a level of yellow alert and announced the activation of rescue units. The authorities evacuated about 6,000 people from their homes in the Lagoa de Perlas (Pearl Lake) and other towns threatened by the cyclone.
In Guatemala, the Civil Defense Department put 22 departments on high alert as the storm approached. In Honduras, the government announced preemptive emptying operations at the main El Cajon hydroelectric dam, while the country witnessed flooding and evacuations at the end of September in the vicinity of San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in the country, its industrial lung and the area most vulnerable to Hurricane Julia.
In El Salvador, the authorities declared an orange alert across the country. It activated rescue units and preemptive evacuation operations in high-risk areas.
In Panama, civil defense has issued a yellow alert, including in Darien County, a forested area on the border with Colombia that hundreds of migrants cross daily to reach the United States.
At the end of 2020, hurricanes Eta and Utah hit Central America, killing at least two hundred people, missing a large number of others, and causing millions of dollars in damage. Julia hits Central America less than two weeks after Hurricane Ian passed through southwestern Florida. And the
Ian was one of the deadliest US hurricanes ever recorded. This category four storm destroyed entire neighborhoods on the western coast of Sunshine State, and killed more than 100 people, according to American media.