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LAST UPDATE | 3 Nov 2020
THE HEART OF powerful Hurricane Eta began moving ashore in Nicaragua with devastating winds and rains that had already destroyed rooftops and caused rivers to overflow.
The hurricane had sustained winds of 140 mph according to the US National Hurricane Centre, down from an overnight peak of 150 mph.
While the eyewall of the Category 4 hurricane had hit shore, its centre was about 20 miles south-southeast of coastal Puerto Cabezas or Bilwi.
Landfall came hours after it had been expected. Eta’s eye had hovered just offshore through the night and Tuesday morning.
The unceasing winds uprooted trees and ripped roofs apart, scattering corrugated metal through the streets of Bilwi, the main coastal city in the region.
The city’s regional hospital abandoned the building, moving patients to a technical school campus.
“It was an intense night for everyone in Bilwi, Waspam and the communities along the northern coast,” Yamil Zapata, local Bilwi representative of the ruling Sandinista Front, said on Tuesday.
Guillermo Gonzalez, director of the country’s emergency management agency, said in a news conference earlier that there were reports of corrugated metal roofs flying off homes, trees, poles and power lines falling and rivers rising in the coastal area.
So far, there were no reported injuries or deaths, he said.
About 10,000 people were in shelters in Bilwi and an equal number in smaller towns across the region, he said. The area had already been lashed with strong winds and heavy rain for hours.
Authorities in Nicaragua and Honduras had moved people Monday from outer islands and low-lying areas to shelters. Residents scrambled to shore up their homes, but few structures along Nicaragua’s remote Caribbean coast were built to withstand such force.
Nicaragua’s army moved red-helmeted troops specialised in search and rescue to Bilwi, a remote and sparsely populated area.
Nicaragua vice president and first lady Rosario Murillo appeared on television Monday and prayed for God to protect the country.
Eta is the 28th named Atlantic storm this season.
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Horrendous act of pure evil. With guns available so readily any person with a grievance or psychotic motive can commit a mass murder at any time, anywhere.
5th a mass KILLING this year alone, it’s 23 January. That’s a mass shooting every 4 days or so.
There’s actually been 33 Mass Shootings in January – That’s almost 1.5 mass shootings per day!
Any other country experiences a mass shooting and the next day they are putting into place stricter gun controls. Not America, they want to put guns in everyones hands to protect others against a mass shooter… what a weird way of thinking…
‘Murica.
@Rafa Condron: they live in different world over there.
So sad to think of all the needless deaths and suffering. I am not sure that gun control would even be enough – but it might be a start. However, something in the US physic seems to create an element of self entitlement which manifests in many ways and not just in mass shootings. Still we hope and pray.
National Rifle Association – I hope you’re happy. As long as you resist reasonable legislation to curb gun control, these events will continue.
No doubt more weapons would sort out this type of problem, maybe even a few tanks. Yeah, let them have tanks. Freeeedoom!
There are more guns than people in the US. Literally.
@Bert Carolan: I can’t remember the exact statistic, but it would take an incredible amount of time to decommission all the guns owned in America. I think it was beyond decades and into hundreds of years. The logistics that would be involved are staggering.
The article states this is the fifth mass shooting of 2023. However, according to CNN who reference Gun Violence Archive this is in fact number 33.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/01/23/politics/mass-shootings-in-2023-what-matters/index.html
@Steve: 5th mass killing. There have been of course 33 mass shootings as I said in the comments already.
Not a bit surprised. It’s the norm in Amercia to go around shooting people.
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