Powerful storm Iota claims 11 lives in Central, South America
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The powerful storm Iota has claimed at least 11 lives as it swept over parts of Central and South America.
The death toll includes six victims in Nicaragua, two in Colombia, one in El Salvador and one in Panama, according to official figures.
A person was also reported to have been killed in Honduras, though the death has not been officially confirmed.
Iota struck Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast on Monday as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 250 kilometres per hour.
It later weakened and was downgraded into a tropical storm.
The storm was on Wednesday dissipating over El Salvador, though it is still expected to bring rains to parts of Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Nicaragua and El Salvador through Thursday, according to the US National Hurricane Centre.
“This rainfall will lead to significant, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” the statement said.
High waves were also expected to affect much of the Central American coast and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
Iota caused widespread damage in Nicaragua, where it destroyed homes and bridges, felled trees and electricity posts and disrupted telecommunications, especially around the city of Puerto Cabezas. More than 60,000 people were evacuated.
In northern Honduras, Iota worsened the damage that had already been caused by hurricane Eta two weeks earlier.
Nearly the entire infrastructure on the Colombian island of Providencia was destroyed and thousands of families lost their homes.
A low pressure area could now appear in the south-western Caribbean, the Hurricane Centre warned.