2nd hurricane in two weeks, Iota ravages Nicaragua, Honduras

The devastation caused by Hurricane Iota became clearer Wednesday as images emerged showing piles of wind- tossed lumber that used to be homes and concrete walls that were pounded into pieces by the second Category 4 storm to blast Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast in two weeks.

The official death toll in Nicaragua stood at six, but that number was rising as authorities surveyed the damage and communications were restored. The victims were spread across the country, swept away by swollen rivers or buried in landslides.

Rescuers searched at the site of a landslide in northern Nicaragua, where the local government confirmed four deaths and neighbors spoke of at least 16. Nicaragua’s army said it was sending 100 rescuers to the site.

Iota arrived Monday evening with winds of 155 mph, hitting nearly the same location as Hurricane Eta two weeks earlier. By early Wednesday, Iota had dissipated over El Salvador, but the storm’s torrential rains remained a threat. The storm’s center passed just south of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, where residents of

low- lying, flood- prone areas were evacuated, as were residents of hillside neighborhoods vulnerable to landslides.

Along Honduras’ remote eastern coast, people fled their homes as waters rose.

Mirna Wood, vice president of the Miskito ethnic group in Honduras’ far eastern Gracias a Dios region, was in Tegucigalpa collecting donations for her community ravaged by Eta when Iota hit.

Some 40,000 people in the area had moved to shelters, but others remained stranded near the border with Nicaragua.

“We are facing an incredible emergency,” Wood said. “There is no food. There is no water.”

Panama reported that one person was killed and another missing in its western Indigenous autonomous Ngabe Bugle area near the border with Costa Rica.

Eta caused more than 130 deaths this month as it triggered flash floods and mudslides in parts of Central America and Mexico. It left tens of thousands homeless in Honduras, which reported 74 deaths and nearly 57,000 people in shelters, mostly in the north.

Iota developed later in the season than any other Category 5 storm on record, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

INTO OCON/ NEW YORK TIMES Some children look for their belongings Tuesday in Bilwi, Nicaragua. As Central America continues to reel from Hurricane Eta two weeks ago, the region faced Hurricane Iota this week.