Preparing for Hurricane Season 2020

[spork]

Eta has made landfall in Nicaragua. Expect lots of destruction in Central America. Projections predict the storm will turn NE and possibly cross Cuba and then hit Florida.

[spork]

A former student of mine is a government official in her home country in Central America. She says parts of the area are seeing 40 inches of rain from Eta. Massive flooding, mudslides, lots of destruction. Eta is predicted to strengthen back to hurricane strength as it moves NE toward Florida.

[mamselle]

Iota is a category 5 approaching Nicaragua:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPuVuI-YpqI

Up to 40 inches rainfall in the Honduras mountains predicted, or possible....

The strength of the winds may go down to category 4 but the rainfall is the greatest threat, and that won't change. Abutting areas like Belize, above the landfall are, and Panama, below it, are also looking at serious rainfall as well, although not as much.

And all of this is on top of Eta's devastation as noted above; water control defenses have been stripped out and have not yet been able to be repaired. Landslides and flooding are expected and evacuation orders are being issued. Two November storms in the same region are highly unusual, and the infrastructure has been strained to the breaking point.

The commentators are urging people to be prepared by this afternoon or tonight, when travel will no longer be possible..."You won't get another chance to do so in another couple of hours," as one said.

The next reconnaissance fly-through is in less than an hour; the latest barometric reading is the lowest, i.e., the strongest storm of the year. The latest recon flight found hail in the eye, which is very unusual, per the commentators (I'm really impressed with the way they're responding to questions and explaining things).

M.

[spork]

Coastal Nicaragua is going to be totally destroyed.

[mamselle]

Yes, they're now calling for landfall by 10:30 PM EST, and one commentator said that some people, who had been evacuated from Eta and told not to return home did so, and may not now be able to be evacuated again because of the condition of the roads, transportation vehicles, etc.

The landslides and loss of power are still unresolved from the previous storm and now this.

M.

[clean]

Not yet showing on the NHC page, but the local news last night showed that there is a 40% chance that yet another storm will develop and threaten that area again in the next 10 days!

As bad as it may have been in  the Lake Charles, LA area this year, at least they have infrastructure and resources to quickly restore them.  They didnt have mountains of mud flowing down on them! AND then within 2 weeks a Cat 5 storm!!

What a year!

[clean]

Cat 5 storm name can not be retired!

"When Atlantic Hurricane Season 2020 shifted into overdrive in September and forced the National Hurricane Center to turn to the Greek alphabet for naming, meteorologists expressed concerns. Tradition had it that storms whose impact was "particularly deadly or costly" would have their names retired and replaced. But the World Meteorological Organization ruled that Greek letters could never be retired, lest an irreplaceable chunk be taken out of the alphabet. Now, that 2006 ruling is being tested after Eta's and Iota's deadly impact in Central America."

This answers a question from higher up in the thread.