Iota is hitting the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras with torrential rains and strong winds, threatening catastrophic flooding in areas already saturated by Eta.
Eta weakened again to a tropical storm Wednesday afternoon just hours after regaining hurricane strength as Florida braced for a second hit from the storm along the Gulf of Mexico coast near the heavily-populated Tampa Bay region.
The system’s wide reach and heavy rains posed a serious threat across South Florida, an area already drenched from more than 14 inches of rain last month.
Its torrential rains battered economies already strangled by the COVID-19 pandemic, took all from those who had little and laid bare the shortcomings of governments unable to aid their citizens and pleading for international assistance.
The storm that hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday had become more of a vast tropical rainstorm, but it was advancing so slowly and dumping so much rain that much of Central America remained on high alert.
As Eta began to make landfall there were reports of corrugated metal roofs flying off homes, trees, poles and power lines falling and rivers rising in the coastal area.
Elections officials in the Deep South spent election eve tending to lingering storm damage from Hurricane Zeta and other storms that damaged buildings or left polling places without power.
At least 20 people were killed as Typhoon Goni lashed the Philippines over the weekend, and about 13,000 shanties and houses were damaged or swept away in the eastern island province that was first hit by the ferocious storm, officials said Monday.
This is the first time the Greek letter Eta is being used because after the 2005 season ended, meteorologists went back and determined there was a storm that should have gotten a name but didn’t.
By KEVIN McGILL, STACEY PLAISANCE and REBECCA SANTANA
Workers closed one of the last floodgates surrounding New Orleans as residents braced for the 27th named storm of a historically busy Atlantic hurricane season.
Tropical Storm Zeta, the 27th named storm of a very busy Atlantic hurricane season, headed for a Wednesday evening landfall and was expected to bring another round of high water and strong wind to a state that already this year has been hit by two tropical storms and two hurricanes.
Hurricane Zeta has come ashore on the Caribbean coast of the eastern Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, while whipping the resorts around Tulum with rain and wind.
Zeta could bring 4 to 8 inches of rain to parts of the Caribbean and Mexico as well as Florida and the Keys before drenching parts of the central Gulf Coast.
Hurricane Epsilon’s maximum sustained winds dropped slightly as it moved northwest over the Atlantic Ocean on a path that should sideswipe Bermuda on Thursday.
Epsilon is expected to make its closest approach to the island on Thursday night, and there is a risk of a direct impact, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Delta crashed onshore Friday night near the coastal town of Creole, Louisiana — a distance of only about 15 miles from where Laura struck land in August, killing 27 people in the state.
Hurricane Delta made landfall just south of the Mexican resort of Cancun on Wednesday, downing trees and knocking out power along the northeastern coast of Yucatan Peninsula, but without immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
Forecasters expect Delta to slam into beach resorts from Tulum to Cozumel with top winds around 130 mph and an extremely dangerous storm surge of up to 13 feet with even higher waves.
Beta weakened to a tropical depression Tuesday as it parked itself over the Texas coast, raising concerns of extensive flooding in Houston and areas further inland.
Beta was expected to move northeast along the Texas coast over the next couple of days, weakening into a depression, before heading into Louisiana sometime mid-week.
The storm comes amid a very active hurricane season in the Atlantic and “Wilfred” is the last name on the Hurricane Center’s list of storm names for the season.
Sally is expected to reach shore by early Tuesday, bringing dangerous weather conditions, including risk of flooding, to a region stretching from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Ocean Springs, Mississippi.
Newly formed Tropical Storm Sally has become better organized and is forecast to reach hurricane strength before it strikes the U.S. Gulf Coast early in the week.
Nana and Omar are the earliest 14th and 15th named storms on record, beating the 2005 arrivals of Nate on Sept. 6 and Ophelia on Sept. 7, according to Colorado State University professor Phil Klotzbach.
A broadcast tower over 300 feet tall was toppled by the winds from Hurricane Laura as the Category 4 storm made landfall in southwest Louisiana during the early morning hours of Thursday, Aug. 26.
