by Marc Burleigh with Blanca Morel in Managua
Agence France-Presse
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AFP) — A tropical storm sliding north along Central America Thursday has unleashed heavy rains killing at least nine people in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, with forecasters predicting it could strengthen into a hurricane headed for the United States.
Costa Rica declared a national emergency as it struggled with mudslides, washed out roads and overflowing rivers.
Schools, universities, government offices and banks across the Central American nation were closed.
Officials in Costa Rica said six people died: four Costa Ricans — including a three-year-old girl — hit by falling trees and mudslides, and two young Nicaraguan farm workers. At least 15 people were missing.
In neighboring Nicaragua, three people died, and 11 people were missing after being carried away by raging water, Vice President Rosario Murillo told state media.
“We have been affected across the country…. affected severely,” she said.
Murillo added that 800 people had been evacuated, nearly 600 homes were flooded and 14 communities were isolated because of rains that had been falling for days.
More than 5,000 people were being put up in shelters in Costa Rica after having to abandon their homes because of flooding and the risk of unstable ground giving way, the director of the country’s National Emergency Commission, Ivan Brenes, said.
At least 18 main roads were closed and another dozen were only partially open. In Costa Rica’s northwest Guanacaste region popular with tourists many roads were so flooded as to be impassable to all but four-wheel-drive vehicles and horses.
Forming into a hurricane
The rain was caused by Tropical Storm Nate, which on Thursday was located overland in eastern Nicaragua.
The US National Hurricane Center said it expected the storm to keep tracking north, gaining force as it went.
It said Tropical Storm Nate would be “near hurricane intensity” by the time it hit Mexico’s southern Yucatan Peninsula late Friday, then strengthen into a hurricane as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico to hit the southern United States somewhere between the states of Louisiana and Florida.
“It is too early to specify the exact timing, location, or magnitude of these impacts,” the center said.
Some offshore oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were being evacuated ahead of the storm, the US government Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said in a statement.
The United States is recovering from two major hurricanes: Hurricane Harvey that tore through Texas in August, and Hurricane Irma in September.
Another powerful storm, Hurricane Maria, ripped through the Caribbean in late September, wreaking destruction on several islands, including Dominica and Puerto Rico.
Crocodile alert
In Costa Rica, an alert was issued for people to be wary of crocodiles that might be roaming after rivers and estuaries flooded.
Concerned football officials were monitoring the situation but said they intended to go ahead with a World Cup qualifying match between Costa Rica and Honduras scheduled for late Friday in the capital San Jose.
The country’s main international airport was open, but with multiple flight cancellations and delays.
The annual rainy season is currently underway in Central America, a five-month period typically ending in November in which the risk of flooding and mudslides rise.
This year’s has been intense, with some areas in the region getting up to 50 percent more rain than average for September and October.
The worst-hit country in the region has been Honduras, where 32 people have died so far this season, according to national emergency service officials.
Guatemala suffered 26 deaths, and another 300,000 people were affected, and 4,000 homes were damaged. In El Salvador, six people died and a national alert urging vigilance was issued last week. In Panama, a mudslide on Saturday killed six people in an indigenous area.
Belize issued a public warning over Tropical Storm Nate, urging “preparations to protect life and property” and for people in flood-prone areas to move to higher ground.
© Agence France-Presse
