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A woman carries her son as she walks on the mud at Bordo del Lancetilla villagde flooded by the overflow of the Lancetilla river on November 03, 2020 in Tela, Honduras. /Getty Images
Hurricane Eta, described as one of the most powerful storms to hit Central America in years, caused devastation when it hit Nicaragua striking the shore near the port of Puerto Cabezas.
The hurricane blew roofs off houses, knocked down trees and power lines, and caused flooding in the region, according to Guillermo Gonzalez, the head of Nicaragua's disaster management agency, SINAPRED.
Gonzalez, who spoke to journalists, said the storm had been hitting the coast with high winds and rain since around midnight.
A resident of Puerto Cabezas who spoke to Reuters, said people were afraid and worried that the damage was just beginning.
"We're really afraid, there are fallen poles, there's flooding, roofs torn off, some of the zinc on my house fell off," Carmen Enriquez said.
"We spent the whole night up worrying, it hasn't stopped raining, and they say it's just starting," she added.
There were no immediate reports of deaths in Nicaragua.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) had warned that the effects of the "extremely dangerous" stormcould be "catastrophic" as it made landfall on Tuesday causing days of flooding and difficulty in parts of Central America.
Just before the Nicaraguan government announced the arrival of the storm, Eta was blowing sustained winds of 145 miles per hour (233 kph), the NHC said.
At least 3,000 families, including fishermen who live in the most vulnerable villages on the Atlantic coast were evacuated, according to officials, while another 20,000 people were taking cover in shelters, SINAPRED said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in Honduras, rivers burst their banks, towns and cities flooded on the Atlantic coast, while landslides hit roads.
Honduras, however, reported a 13-year-old girl died in a mudslide on her home in a barrio of the northern city of San Pedro Sula.
(With input from Reuters)
