- Title: Residents in Nicaragua flee Hurricane Otto
- Date: 24th November 2016
- Summary: BLUEFIELDS, NICARAGUA (NOVEMBER 24, 2016) (REUTERS) RESIDENTS SEEN EVACUATING AREA RESIDENTS BOARDING BUS VARIOUS OF RESIDENTS ON BOARD BUS RESIDENTS CARRYING BELONGINGS BUS LEAVING WITH RESIDENTS ON BOARD MOTORBIKE AND POLICE VEHICLE IN STREET RESIDENTS DESCENDING FROM BUS EVACUATED RESIDENTS, MATTRESSES SEEN ON GROUND ELDERLY WOMEN SEEN IN SHELTER VARIOUS OF EVACUATED RESIDENTS IN SHELTER (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) EVACUATED RESIDENT, NORA GARCIA, SAYING: "Since last night we came here to the shelter and I feel somewhat sad and nervous for what we are expecting have not yet felt." ELDERLY WOMAN WITH GIRL IN SHELTER CHILDREN IN SHELTER MEN UNLOADING BELONGINGS FROM BUS
- Embargoed: 9th December 2016 19:00
- Keywords: hurricane Otto evacuations Nicaragua residents
- Location: BLUEFIELDS, NICARAGUA
- City: BLUEFIELDS, NICARAGUA
- Country: Nicaragua
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Wildfires/Forest Fires
- Reuters ID: LVA00159T2NGN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Nicaraguan residents were seen evacuating their homes on (November 24) before the imminent arrival of Hurricane Otto.
In Bluefields, a city in Nicaragua's southeastern Mosquito Coast, rainfall began early on Thursday morning. By late Wednesday evening, local authorities had evacuated 600 people, with plans to move a further 7,000 into storm shelters.
Otto, the seventh Atlantic hurricane of the season, made landfall on the coast of southern Nicaragua to the north of the town of San Juan de Nicaragua, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said on Thursday.
Otto is the southernmost landfalling hurricane in Central America on record, the NHC added.
Bluefields, once an infamous pirate hangout, was smashed by Category 4 Hurricane Joan in 1988, a devastating storm that destroyed many of the town's 19th century wooden houses.
Residents boarded buses that would take them to safety while the storm passes.
Children, women and elders sat patiently in a shelter, with mattresses placed on the floor.
Nora Garcia, an evacuated resident, felt anxious about the situation they are in.
"Since last night we came here to the shelter and I feel somewhat sad and nervous for what we are expecting have not yet felt," she said.
The hurricane is located about 70 miles (110 km) south of Bluefields, Nicaragua, with maximum sustained winds of 110 miles per hour (175 kph), the NHC said.
Weakening should begin soon while Otto moves farther west inland, and is forecast to become a tropical storm by Thursday night, the Miami-based weather forecaster said.
To make matters worse, a strong earthquake off the Pacific Coast of Central America shook the region on Thursday, and could prompt hazardous tsunami waves, U.S. monitoring agencies said, just as Otto barrelled into the Caribbean coasts of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None