A man stands outside his house surrounded by floodwaters after Hurricane Julia swept through the area in Bluefields, Nicaragua, on Sunday. The storm made landfall on Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast and caused torrential rains across Central America before erupting back into the Pacific as a tropical storm.
Inti Ocon / AP
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A man stands outside his house surrounded by floodwaters after Hurricane Julia swept through the area in Bluefields, Nicaragua, on Sunday. The storm made landfall on Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast and caused torrential rains across Central America before erupting back into the Pacific as a tropical storm.
Inti Ocon / AP
CITY OF GUATEMALA – Now a tropical depression, Hurricane Julia previously lashed Guatemala and El Salvador with torrential rains on Monday after it reappeared in the Pacific Ocean after Nicaragua slammed .
At least 19 people are reported to have died as a direct or indirect result of the storm.
Guatemala’s disaster agency said five people died after a hillside collapsed on their home in Alta Verapaz province, burying them.
El Salvador authorities say five Salvadoran army soldiers have died after a wall collapsed at a house where they sought refuge in the town of Comasagua, where hundreds of police and soldiers were marching. anti-gang raids. Another soldier was wounded.
Two others were killed in the town of Guatajiagua, in eastern El Salvador, after heavy rain knocked down a wall of their home. Another man in El Salvador died when he was swept away by currents, and another died when a tree fell on him.
Rivers overflowed and El Salvador declared a state of emergency and opened 80 storm shelters.
In neighboring Honduras, a 22-year-old woman died when she was swept away by currents, and three died when their boat flooded or capsized in northern Honduras. A man in Nicaragua was killed by a fallen tree.
Julia made landfall on Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast early Sunday morning as a storm with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 km/h) and survived the land’s mountainous terrain water, entering the Pacific Ocean later in the day as a tropical storm.
Children run through a street full of trees left over from Hurricane Julia in Bluefields, Nicaragua, on Sunday.
Inti Ocon / AP
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Children run through a street full of trees left over from Hurricane Julia in Bluefields, Nicaragua, on Sunday.
Inti Ocon / AP
On Monday, Julia moved inland through Guatemala and its winds dropped to 35 mph (60 km/h).
The US National Hurricane Center said Julia was centered about 35 miles (60 km) northeast of Puerto San Jose, Guatemala, and was moving west-northwest at 15 mph (24 mph (24 mph) and was moving west-northwestward. km/h).
The center said life-threatening flash floods and mudslides are possible across Central America and southern Mexico through Tuesday, with the storm expected to bring up to 15 inches (38 cm) of rain. ) in isolated areas.
In Guatemala, two people are listed as missing and two are hospitalized, and about 1,300 people have been displaced from their homes by floods and rising spring waters.
Julia is expected to disappear late Monday as it sails along the Guatemalan coast.
Colombia’s national disaster agency on Sunday reported that Julia blew off the roofs of several homes and toppled trees as it exploded over San Andres Island in eastern Nicaragua. There were no immediate reports of deaths.
In Nicaragua, Vice President Rosario Murillo told broadcaster TN8 that 9,500 people had been evacuated to shelters.
Heavy rain and evacuations were also reported in Panama, Honduras and Costa Rica, where several highways were closed due to downpours.
