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MIAMI, Florida, November 16,2020 (ENS) – The word iota means something very small, but the Category 5 Hurricane Iota now bearing down on Central America is the exact opposite. Expected to bring catastrophic winds, life-threatening storm surge, and torrential rainfall, it’s about to smash into Nicaragua and Honduras a few miles away from Puerto Cabezas, a Nicaraguan city of 100,000, where powerful Hurricane Eta made landfall just two weeks ago. Iota reached Category 5 strength, the first storm of the season to achieve the highest ranking on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, when its winds peaked at 160 mph on Monday morning. Only hours earlier, Iota, the record-breaking,30th named storm of the season had strengthened from a Category 2 storm to a Category 4 major hurricane within one hour. The National Hurricane Center in Miami advised, “On the forecast track, the core of Iota will make landfall within the hurricane warning area in northeastern Nicaragua tonight, and dissipate over central America by Wednesday.” Maximum sustained winds are near 160 mph (260 km/h) with higher gusts. Iota is forecast to continue to be a catastrophic category 5 hurricane when it approaches Central America tonight, and rapid weakening is expected after landfall. AccuWeather meteorologist Jake Sojda warned, “The extremely dangerous hurricane could unleash the worst floods the region has had “in a thousand years or more” as it approaches in the midst of a humanitarian crisis triggered by Eta less than two weeks ago.
