MANAGUA — Hurricane Julia made landfall in Nicaragua early Sunday as a Category 1 storm, the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm had sustained winds of 85 mph when it moved onshore near Laguna de Perlas around 1:15 am, the center said.
Along with hurricane-force winds, life-threatening rainfall of 6 to 10 inches, with isolated amounts of up to 15 inches, is possible in Nicaragua, forecasters said.
“Life-threatening flash floods and mudslides possible from heavy rains over Central America and Southern Mexico through early next week,” the hurricane center said in its 2 am ET update.
Storm surge of up to four feet above normal tide levels is possible along San Andres and Providencia islands. Storm surge of up to six feet and large, damaging waves were expected along the coast of Nicaragua.
After moving across Nicaragua Sunday, the storm is expected to approach the Pacific coasts of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala Monday and Monday night.
Earlier in Bluefields, one of the main coastal towns expected to be buffeted by the storm, fishermen were busy safeguarding their boats as people to buy groceries and withdraw money from ATMs.
Hurricane-force winds and heavy rains began to be felt by around midnight, according to AFP photographers in the city, while state media reported detached roofs, fallen trees and power outages.
Before reaching Nicaragua, Julia passed over a trio of Colombian islands, an Environment Ministry official told AFP, causing rain and lightning in the country’s north.
While authorities reported no significant damage or casualties on the islands, home to about 48,000 people, Colombian President Gustavo Petro put the area on “maximum alert” and ordered hotels to open space for use as shelters.
Nicaragua has evacuated some 6,000 people in Laguna de Perlas, in the Miskito keys located off the coast, and in other zones.
“We have to prepare with food, plastic, a little bit of everything, because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Javier Duarte, a cabinetmaker in Bluefields, told AFP.
The municipality of some 60,000 inhabitants has many flimsy structures.
Julia’s arrival in Central America comes less than two weeks after the deadly Hurricane Ian crashed into the southwest of the US state of Florida, in one of the deadliest US hurricanes on record.— Agencies