Hurricane Eta devastates Nicaraguan and Honduran coasts: at least three dead

Hurricane Eta, which is advancing on the Caribbean coast of Central America with winds of 230 km / h and torrential rains and has caused flooding, on Tuesday claimed the first victim in Honduras, a 13-year-old girl, died in the collapse of her house.

And two men were killed while working in an artisanal mine in the locality of Bonanza in Nicaragua, the director of the Nicaraguan Red Cross, Auner Garcia, announced on television.

Category 4 to 2

The hurricane decreased in intensity from categories 4 to 2, with winds of 176 km / h towards an area called the "mining triangle", an area of ​​artisanal gold mining in the northeast of the country. Nicaragua, according to the latest bulletin from the US Hurricane Monitoring Center (NHC).

Eta is expected to reach this area on Wednesday morning as a Category 1 hurricane, with winds of 120 km / h, before changing to a tropical storm in northern Nicaragua, then going to Honduras as a tropical depression at the end. of the day, according to the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (Ineter).

The hurricane, which was slowly moving over the Caribbean Sea, had previously strengthened in its warm waters on Monday and Tuesday.

Category 4, it made landfall on Tuesday around 6 a.m. local (12 p.m. GMT) south of Bilwi, the main town on the north coast of Nicaragua, also known as Puerto Cabezas.

Tin roofs of houses in this poor region, home to some 100,000 people, mostly indigenous, were easily swept away by the hurricane, miskito chief Kevin Lackwood of the coastal community of Prinzapolka told AFP. , where the men stayed to guard the houses evacuated by the women and children.

"Many trees have fallen and the road network is badly affected," said Nicaraguan Minister of Infrastructure Oscar Mojica.

The Wawa River, between Bilwi and the rest of the country, is in flood.

"Bilwi was hit hard. Neighborhoods on the outskirts are flooded and bridges under water. Many roofs of houses have been washed away, and this continues as the hurricane moves very slowly," AFP told AFP. volunteer rescuer Kevin Gonzalez.

"The houses (in the region) are very vulnerable: they are wooden houses lined with plastic," he explains.

"Night of terror"

The inhabitants endured for ten hours the pangs of the approach of the cyclone: ​​"It was a night of terror because the gusts of wind made a noise similar to that of a tractor which destroyed everything in its path", told AFP Joel Quin, a 35-year-old resident of Bilwi who gazed in dismay at the rubble of his house.

Giovany Nelson, 34, recounts how he remained "locked in a room, hearing the wind destroying the roof" of his house.

The power of the cyclone "surprised us and filled us with anguish", he adds.

The authorities transported 88 tons of food to the area and two air force planes transported soldiers and medical equipment to the site on Sunday and Monday.

Sudden floods

The Nicaraguan authorities said they had evacuated 20,000 people from the islets off the coast and coastal areas most exposed to the cyclone and floods.

Nicaraguan Vice-President Rosario Murillo argued that Eta had "not been as catastrophic as expected in terms of material damage".

The rains in Eta have also started to hit neighboring Honduras hard.

The 13-year-old girl died in the rubble of a house in San Pedro Sula (north), which collapsed in a flooded neighborhood from where 400 people were evacuated.

Torrential rains fell on the ports of La Ceiba and Tela on Tuesday on the coast of Honduras (north).

More than a hundred people were evacuated after the swollen rivers Lean and La Masica rose from their beds.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) has announced that it will provide "logistical and telecommunications support, with mobile (food) depots, prefabricated offices, electric generators, radios and satellite links."

In total, "about 520,000 inhabitants are facing the worst of the hurricane," according to WFP.

In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele said on the national radio and television channel that more than 100,000 people from government, relief agencies, police and military were ready to help the population overcome the consequences of hurricane and called for preventive measures.