![]() ![]() ![]() The overflowing water, which in some places reached a height of 2.5 metres, destroyed houses and their contents (furniture, electrical appliances, clothes, kitchen utensils, among others), flooded streets and community spaces with mud and stones, contaminated artesian wells and destroyed community water systems, causing considerable damage to the community and municipal road infrastructure. Some 150 km2 were flooded in these three municipalities, with direct exposure of some 8,000 people. In the department of Izabal, flooding caused by Eta, due to the overflowing of the Motagua river, mainly affected the municipalities of Los Amates, Morales, and Puerto Barrios. CONRED reported 60 people killed, 30 injured, at least 100 people missing, some 60,000 houses with moderate to severe damage and a large amount of national and community infrastructure affected and damaged, including roads, bridges, buildings, schools and health infrastructure. Data from CONRED's Emergency or Disaster Information Management System (SISMICEDE by its Spanish acronym) showed some 425 landslides and mudflows. The landslides occurred along a wide swath of the mountainous zone of Huehuetenango, Quiché and Alta Verapaz, as well as in steeply sloping areas of Chiquimula. In the departments of Izabal, Petén, Alta Verapaz and Quiché, an area of approximately 530 km2 was flooded, where some 33,000 people were directly exposed. The National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED by its Spanish acronym) reported that 16 of 22 departments were affected by both events, with damage concentrated in Alta Verapaz, Izabal, Quiché, Huehuetenango, Petén, Zacapa and Chiquimula, where around 5 million people live. The governments of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua declared states of emergency in at-risk departments and requested humanitarian and financial aid, elevating it to an official international-level request to intensify emergency response actions.Īccording to the CEPAL report "Evaluation of the effects and impacts of tropical depressions Eta and Iota in Guatemala", these two hurricanes caused flooding and dozens of catastrophic mudslides and mudflows. These two hurricanes affected more than 7.5 million people in Central America. Iota dissipated over western El Salvador 6 hours later. Further weakening followed as the cyclone moved across the rugged terrain of southern Honduras early on 18 November and become a tropical depression by 1200 UTC 18 November when the broad system was moving across east-central El Salvador. Shortly after landfall, Iota turned due west and rapidly weakened over the mountainous terrain of Nicaragua, becoming a tropical storm by 1800 UTC that day while located over western Nicaragua near the Honduras-Nicaragua border. Hurricane Iota made landfall with an intensity of 125 kt around 0340 UTC 17 November along the eastern coast of Nicaragua about 20 mi south-south-west of Puerto Cabezas near the village of Haulover. Hurricane Iota worsened the situation in areas already affected by Eta and significantly expanded the impact to other regions in Nicaragua and other Central American countries. Unfortunately, this devastation was soon to be followed by additional disastrous impacts from Hurricane Iota just two weeks later. There was an estimated $6.8 billion (USD) worth of total damage from Eta in Central America, according to the Global Catastrophe Recap produced by Aon. The United Nations (UN) estimated that 4.9 million people were adversely impacted by the torrential rainfall, strong winds, and storm surge produced by Eta. ![]() Fortunately, there was no reported loss of life near the landfall location on the coast of north-eastern Nicaragua, although Eta caused very severe damage in that area. Flooding or landslides contributed to at least 74 deaths in Honduras, 60 in Guatemala, 27 in Mexico, and 2 in both Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The extreme rainfall associated with Eta2 caused catastrophic flash flooding, river flooding, and deadly landslides across the region. On 3 November 2020, Hurricane Eta made landfall in Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane, causing landslides and floods that displaced thousands of people and left dozens dead or missing in Central America and parts of the Caribbean. This is the most storms on record, surpassing the 28 from 2005, and the second highest number of hurricanes on record. In total, the 2020 season produced 30 named storms (top winds of 39 mph or greater), of which 14 became hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or greater), including seven major hurricanes (top winds of 111 mph or greater). The extremely active 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was an above-normal season, according to the NOAA National Hurricane Center (NHC). ![]()
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