A fast-strengthening Hurricane Iota intensified into an extremely dangerous Category 5 storm as it swept over the western Caribbean Monday morning. The storm was approaching the same part of Central America battered by Hurricane Eta just over a week ago.
Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center said in their 10 a.m. ET update that Iota’s maximum sustained winds had reached 160 mph, making it a Category 5 — the most powerful hurricane of the 2020 season and the strongest ever recorded in November.
#Iota is now a Category 5 #hurricane with max winds of 160 mph. Iota is the latest Atlantic calendar year Category 5 hurricane on record. Old record was November 8 by the Cuba Hurricane of 1932. pic.twitter.com/unTdbM5U8G
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) November 16, 2020
Authorities warned that Iota would probably come ashore over areas where Eta’s torrential rains have already saturated the soil, leaving it prone to new landslides and floods. The storm surge could reach a shocking 12 to 18 feet (3.6 to 5.5 meters) above normal tides.
Iota was forecast to drop 8 to 16 inches of rain in northern Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and southern Belize, with as much as 30 inches in isolated spots. Costa Rica and Panama could also experience heavy rain and possible flooding, the hurricane center said.
Evacuations were being conducted from low-lying areas in Nicaragua and Honduras near their shared border, where Iota’s landfall appears most likely. Winds and rain were already being felt on the Nicaraguan coast Sunday night.
After hitting Nicaragua, the storm will weaken as it heads inland to Honduras and El Salvador, CBS News weather producer David Parkinson says. “However, because the northern side of the storm is the moisture laden part it will dump up to 30 inches of rain in places like San Pedro Sula which saw around that amount from Eta,” Parkinson says.
Hurricane Iota off Central American coast at Nicaragua-Honduras border early on November 16, 2020.
National Hurricane Center
Iota became a hurricane early Sunday and rapidly gained more power. The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned it would probably reach the Central America mainland late Monday.
Iota is the record 30th named storm of this year’s extraordinarily busy Atlantic hurricane season. Such activity has focused attention on climate change, which scientists say is causing wetter, stronger and more destructive storms.
All of Honduras was on high alert, with compulsory evacuations that began before the weekend. By Sunday evening 63,500 people were reported to be in 379 shelters just in the northern coastal region. Nicaraguan officials said that by late Sunday afternoon about 1,500 people, nearly half of them children, had been evacuated from low-lying areas in the country’s northeast, including all the inhabitants of Cayo Misquitos. Authorities said 83,000 people in that region were in danger.
Wind and rain were beginning to be felt Sunday night in Bilwi, a coastal Nicaraguan city where people crowded markets and hardware stores during the day in search of plastic sheeting, nails and other materials to reinforce their homes, just as they did when Hurricane Eta hit on November 3. Several residents of Bilwi expressed concern that their homes would not stand up to Iota, so soon after Eta. Local television showed people being evacuated in wooden boats, carrying young children as well as dogs and chickens.
Eta already wreaked havoc when it hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane, killing at least 120 people as torrential rains caused flash floods and mudslides in parts of Central America and Mexico. Then it meandered across Cuba, the Florida Keys and around the Gulf of Mexico before slogging ashore again near Cedar Key, Florida, and dashing across Florida and the Carolinas.
Eta was this year’s 28th named storm, tying the 2005 record. Remnants of Theta, the 29th, dissipated Sunday in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.
The official end of hurricane season is Nov. 30.