A slightly weakened Hurricane Iota has begun whipping a remote coastal area of Nicaragua, as the region's leaders blamed climate change for destructive weather pushing millions closer to hunger.
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Iota was due to crash through northeastern Nicaragua's Miskito region overnight, packing maximum sustained winds of 250 km/h.
The US National Hurricane Centre has downgraded Iota to Category 4 from 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. It is expected to dissipate over Central America on Wednesday, but not without causing serious damage.
Central America and southern Mexico are still reeling from Hurricane Eta, which devastated crops and washed away hillsides after landing near Puerto Cabezas two weeks ago, killing dozens. Many towns are still partially flooded, and the land is waterlogged from the earlier storm.
Along with the wind, Iota will raise sea levels as much as 6 metres above normal tides. It is expected to dump as much as 76 cm of rain over the next few days as it weakens inland.
Earlier in the day, governments from Panama to Guatemala rushed to move people away from hillsides, volcanoes and bodies of water.
"What's drawing closer is a bomb," Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez told a news conference, speaking alongside Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei.
Iota will leave Honduras and its neighbours in "a very difficult situation," Hernandez said.
Images from Nicaragua's military showed soldiers helping people into boats in heaving seas and trucks to move to higher land and larger towns in the watery region of jungles, rivers and coastline.
"There are villages that can protect or save themselves, but others cannot cope with this catastrophe after Eta," said Teonela Wood, mayor of Honduras' Brus Laguna municipality, which she said was home to more than 17,000 people.
The unprecedented 2020 hurricane season comes as Central America is facing an economic crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic, with experts warning the compounding hardship could worsen infections, spread hunger and fuel a new round of migration from the region.
Climate change is increasing the intensity of both rain and droughts across Central America, the United Nations refugee agency said last week, saying such phenomena can exacerbate the poverty that drives people to flee their homes.
Australian Associated Press