Flood fears as storm hits Central America

BLUEFIELDS, Nicaragua — Hurricane Julia raked across Nicaragua on Sunday, lashing the country with winds and heavy rain and bringing potentially life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides to much of Central America and southern Mexico.

Maximum sustained winds were estimated at 140 kilometers per hour when the storm made landfall near the Laguna de Perlas area, the country's weather agency said.

By midday, the fifth Atlantic hurricane of the season had weakened to a tropical storm with top sustained winds of nearly 97 km per hour as it churned westward across Nicaragua, unleashing a dangerous storm surge along the coast, damaging homes in the country's interior and leaving some towns incommunicado.

"It's still raining, water has surrounded us, we have been without power and water since early morning, several houses are without roofs and many trees are down on the road," Julio Hernandez, a resident of Rio Blanco in central Nicaragua, said.

The country was on high alert, with civil defense brigades helping to clear fallen trees from roads and watch for flooding in coastal towns and mountain villages. No fatalities have been reported.

But the United States' National Hurricane Center, or NHC, warned that Julia, with her center passing over the Central American isthmus into the eastern Pacific Ocean on Sunday night, was still packing a punch, not just for Nicaragua but also for neighboring countries.

"Heavy rainfall with a risk of life-threatening flash floods and mudslides to continue across Central America and southern Mexico through Tuesday," the NHC said.

Maintaining its tropical storm strength, Julia is forecast to produce 12.7 to 25.4 centimeters of rain in Nicaragua and El Salvador, with isolated pockets receiving as much as 38.1 cm.

Rush for groceries

Hours earlier in Bluefields, one of the main coastal towns in Nicaragua buffeted by the storm, fishermen had been busy safeguarding their boats as people rushed to buy groceries and withdraw money from ATMs.

Hurricane-force winds and heavy rains began to be felt around midnight, while reports detailed detached roofs, fallen trees and power outages.

Before reaching Nicaragua, Julia passed over a trio of Colombian islands, said an environment ministry official, causing rain and lightning in the country's north.

Julia was a Category 1 hurricane, on the low side of the five-tier Saffir-Simpson wind scale, when it roared ashore in Nicaragua.

Authorities have evacuated some 6,000 people in Laguna de Perlas, in the Miskito Cays located off the coast, and in other zones. Dozens of storm shelters were set up in schools.

"We have to prepare food, plastic, a little bit of everything, because we don't know what's going to happen," said Javier Duarte, a cabinetmaker in Bluefields.

The municipality of some 60,000 inhabitants has many flimsy structures. By midmorning, telephone communications were knocked out.

Julia's arrival in Central America comes less than two weeks after deadly Hurricane Ian crashed into the southeastern Florida state as one of the most powerful US hurricanes on record.

The Category 4 storm flattened entire neighborhoods on the Sunshine State's southwest coast. More than 100 people were killed, according to US media.

Climate change is increasing the temperature of ocean surface layers, which generates more powerful and wetter storms, experts said.

Agencies via Xinhua