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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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Hurricane Ida Prompts Evacuations in
Nicaragua
MANAGUA - Hurricane Ida, a Category 1 on the
five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, forced the
evacuation of 2,220 people after making
landfall early Thursday on Nicaragua’s
central Caribbean coast, authorities said.
The country’s deputy civil defense chief,
Lt. Col. Gilberto Narvaez, told Efe that
residents were evacuated from fishing
villages and other small communities in a
thinly populated region of Caribe Sur
province.
At the Corn Island tourist center, 800
people were evacuated and at least 40 houses
were partially damaged by the storm,
according to a preliminary civil defense
report.
Government meteorologist Carlos Oporta told
Efe that Ida’s eye made landfall between the
Caribbean coastal municipalities of
Bluefields and Puerto Cabezas shortly before
7 a.m.
The storm caused “destruction” on Corn
Island, Mayor Cleaveland Webster told Efe.
“We’re without light and without water.
There are at least five houses completely
destroyed and dozens of others without
roofs. In addition, there are trees knocked
over that are blocking the road that goes
around the island,” he said.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said that
as of 1500 GMT, Ida was located 125
kilometers (75 miles) west of Bluefields and
105 kilometers (65 miles) south-southwest of
Puerto Cabezas, heading northwest at 9 kph
(6 mph).
Ida had maximum sustained winds of 120 kph
(nearly 75 mph) and was expected to weaken
to a tropical storm later Thursday, the NHC
said, warning that the system could dump 20
inches of rain over eastern Nicaragua and
Honduras. EFE
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