Hurricane Julia battered Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast and dumped torrential rains over Central America before reappearing in the Pacific as a tropical storm. It was scheduled to move parallel to the coasts of El Salvador and Guatemala on Monday.
Julia struck Sunday as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 km/h), its winds reaching the strength of a tropical typhoon of 40 mph (65 km/h) Sunday night as it passed through Nicaragua.
The U. S. National Hurricane Center The U. S. Department of Health said Julia was centered about 95 miles (155 kilometers) southeast of San Salvador, El Salvador, and moved west at 15 mph (24 km/h).
He said flash floods and life-threatening landslides were imaginable in Central America and southern Mexico until Tuesday, and the typhoon was expected to bring up to 38 centimeters of rain to remote areas.
Colombia’s national crisis control firm reported Sunday that Julia blew off the roofs of several houses and knocked down trees as she passed through Nicaragua’s San Andres island. There were no immediate reports of deaths.
In Nicaragua, Vice President Rosario Murillo told TN8 tv that so far no deaths have been reported, but that in some areas electricity and communications have been cut. He said another 9,500 people have been evacuated to shelters.
Local media showed photographs of downed trees on roads and local flooding.
Heavy rains and evacuations were reported in Panama, Honduras and Costa Rica, where some roads were closed due to downpours.
Guillermo Gonzalez, director of Nicaragua’s Crisis Response System, told state media that other high-risk people were evacuated from coastal spaces at noon Saturday. The army said it had delivered humanitarian supplies in Bluefields and Pearl Lagoon for distribution to 118 transitional shelters.
The typhoon was expected to emerge over the Pacific and skirt the coasts of El Salvador and Guatemala, a region already saturated by weeks of heavy rains. It was intended to catch fire on Monday night.
In Guatemala, storms since early May had already left at least 49 other people dead, with six missing. Roads and many homes were damaged, according to Guatemalan officials.
In El Salvador, where another 19 people have died this rainy season, the worst rains were expected on Monday and Tuesday, said Fernando Lopez, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. friends.
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