Otto, a Category 2
hurricane, churned toward the Caribbean shores of Costa Rica and Nicaragua on
Thursday, prompting evacuations in eastern coastal communities as
people braced
for the storm to make landfall later in the day.
At 7 a.m. EST, Otto
was about 70 miles (113 km) north of the Costa Rican city of Limon, blowing 105
mile-per-hour (169 km-per-hour) winds, according to the U.S.-based National
Hurricane Center.
The storm was moving
west at 8 mph (13 kph), the NHC said, and was expected to make landfall
somewhere between Nicaragua and Costa Rica's east coasts later on Thursday.
In Bluefields, a
coastal city in Nicaragua's southeast, rainfall began early on Thursday
morning, with local forecasters suggesting the storm would hit around midday.
By late Wednesday evening, local authorities had evacuated 600 people, with
plans to move a further 7,000 into storm shelters.
On the Corn Islands,
which face Bluefields and are popular with tourists, 1,400 people had been
evacuated to shelters, with another 1,000 more moved from Punta Gorda, which
lies south along the coast from Bluefields, local emergency services said.
Government officials
said there had been some people along the country's southeast coast who had
refused to evacuate, but the officials declined to say how many.
The NHC said Otto
may well strengthen before hitting land.
"Weakening is
expected after landfall, and Otto is forecast to weaken to a tropical storm by
tonight," the NHC said.
Total rainfall of 6
to 12 inches (15 to 30 cm), with isolated amounts of 15 to 20 inches, is
expected across northern Costa Rica and southern Nicaragua on Thursday.
Reuters
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