Hurricane Nana, which quickly lost its power and was downgraded to a tropical storm, swept through northern Central America on Thursday without causing any casualties, before continuing its route to Mexico.
“Nana is rapidly weakening in northern Guatemala and southeast Mexico. All alerts and warnings on the coasts have been suspended, ”the US Hurricane Monitoring Center said.
Nana, whose winds no longer exceed 72 km / h, should even be downgraded to a simple tropical depression on entering Mexico, according to the Center, which warns, however, of the risk of flooding.
Nana, coming from the Caribbean Sea swept in the night from Wednesday to Thursday the central coast of Belize with intense winds and rains, causing falls of trees and blackouts, according to the national meteorological service and of disaster prevention (NEMO).
The organization however recalled that the new coronavirus pandemic constitutes the “greatest threat” for the country and asked the population to maintain health measures.
Always a hurricane in its passage through Honduras, Nana particularly hit the tourist archipelago of Islas de la Bahia, and the Honduran authorities maintained during the night the “green alert” on a large part of the country, including the region of capital Tegucigalpa.
In Guatemala, the Coordination for Disaster Reduction (Conred) reported Thursday morning only of falling trees and a roof collapse in the northeast of the country.
However, Guatemalan civil protection services are concerned about the effect of heavy rainfall in Nana on soils already saturated with water by the rainy season that began in May, said David de Leon, spokesman for Conred.
Those in charge especially fear floods and landslides, especially on the sides of the Fuego (southwest) and Santiaguito (west) volcanoes where many villages are established.
El Salvador, yet far from Nana’s path, has placed the country “preventively” on “green alert” pending “moderate to intense” rains, said Salvadoran Interior Minister Mario Duran.
In late May and early June, storms Amanda and Cristobal killed 30 people in El Salvador, and five in Guatemala.
The 2020 hurricane season, which runs from June to November, promises to be more active than average: experts predict it will have between 19 and 25 tropical storms, of which seven to eleven will become hurricanes.