Hurricane Eta made landfall off the coast of Nicaragua in November as a category 4 hurricane before slowly moving across Honduras and then Guatemala. Some areas saw as much as 550mm of rain (22inches) leading to landslides and flooding.
Tropical Storm Eta spun through northern Nicaragua after lashing the country’s Caribbean coast for much of the previous day. The storm had weakened from the category 4 hurricane that battered the coast, but it was moving so slowly and bringing so much rain that much of Central America was on high alert. Eta had sustained winds of 60mph and was moving westward at 8mph
Eta came ashore on Tuesday afternoon after stalling for hours just off the coast. The city of about 60,000 people had been without power since Monday evening. Corrugated metal roofing and uprooted trees were scattered through its streets. Approximately 20,000 of the area’s residents were in shelters. Economists believe the loss could be greater even than that inflicted in 1998 by Hurricane Mitch, the most destructive storm to ever hit Central America and the second most deadly Atlantic hurricane in recorded history.