Tropical storm Julia has become a hurricane and is expected to make landfall in Nicaragua this Sunday morning, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) and local authorities.
“Julia became a hurricane with sustained winds of 120 km/h as it passed near the islands of San Andrés and Providencia”, which together with Santa Catalina complete a Colombian archipelago of some 48,000 inhabitants in the Caribbean Sea, the US agency announced in a release. .
Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo announced that Julia is expected to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Sunday morning on the country’s southeast coast. The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has declared “maximum alert” in San Andrés.
Rains over the weekend could cause life-threatening “flash flooding and landslides” in Central America, the NHC also warned.
Alert in many countries
The Nicaraguan National System for Disaster Prevention (Sinapred) placed the entire country on yellow alert this Saturday and activated rescue units. The government evacuated some 6,000 people from the Laguna de Perlas area and other threatened towns.
In Guatemala, 22 departments were placed on red alert by civil protection services due to the proximity of the storm, which could also affect Honduras and El Salvador.
In Honduras, the government announced the preventive load shedding of the main hydroelectric dam, El Cajón. Especially since the country experienced floods and evacuations at the end of September in the vicinity of San Pedro Sula, the second largest city and industrial lung of the country, and the area now most threatened by Julia.
In El Salvador, the authorities have declared an orange alert for the entire country, activating rescue units and preventive evacuations in high-risk areas.
In Panama, Civil Protection has established a yellow alert, including in the province of Darién, a jungle area that borders Colombia and where hundreds of migrants cross daily to reach the United States.
At the end of 2020, hurricanes Eta and Iota hit Central America, leaving at least 200 dead and as many missing, and damage estimated at several million dollars.
Source: BFM TV
