The four countries of northern Central America – Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala – are bracing for the arrival of Tropical Storm Nana which is moving west into the Caribbean Sea and threatening to turn into a hurricane.
The civil protection services of the four countries especially fear the impact of heavy rains from the storm, which was approaching the coast of Honduras on Wednesday with winds of 90 km / h.
Before making landfall in Belize, probably midday Thursday, Nana should become a category 1 hurricane (on a scale of 5) with winds of more than 117 km / h whose rains could cause floods and flooding. , according to Fancisco Argenal, head of the Honduran meteorological service.
The Belize Disaster Reduction Service (NEMO) has issued a flood alert and asked people to go to safe shelters such as schools that have been requisitioned.
In Guatemala, the alert was also given by the Coordination for Disaster Prevention (Conred) which warned that the rains will be intense and relentless from Thursday until the weekend.
The Guatemalan civil protection services are all the more concerned as the soils are already saturated with water by the intense rains since the start of the wet season in May.
In El Salvador, the Minister of the Interior Mario Duran declared the “green alert” in anticipation of the arrival of Nana, who should however be downgraded to a “moderate to strong” storm during his passage over the country from Thursday, according to the country’s authorities.
In late May and early June, storms Amanda and Cristobal had killed 30 people in El Salvador, and five in Guatemala.