Tropical Storm Bonnie crosses Nicaragua; high rain

MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Tropical Storm Bonnie on Saturday moved with heavy rain over Nicaragua, leaving in its wake some fallen trees and split roofs from homes in the south of the country, but without causing casualties or major damage.

The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC, for its English acronym based in Miami) reported that Ain Boni made landfall in a sector of the border with Costa Rica at 9:00 p.m. local time Friday, with winds of 85 kph and higher gales.

According to the Nicaraguan Institute of Regional Studies, the meteorite entered the country through San Juan de Nicaragua, across Lake Cochipolca and moved at a speed of 26 km/h over Rivas province, where neighbors reported falling trees and causing minor damage to families.

The government of President Daniel Ortega issued a decree on a yellow alert on Friday throughout the national territory. The president appeared at night on the national radio and television network to say that the mechanisms for dealing with disasters have been put in place.

In a statement, the military said 225 people, mostly residents of the Misquito Cays, located off the coast of the northern Caribbean Sea, Pearl Cays and Monkey Point, both in the southern Caribbean, have been evacuated. There were no reports of deaths or missing persons from the storm.

Residents of Bluefields, the region’s main city that was hit hard by Hurricanes Ita and Ota in 2020, reported temporary outages in drinking water service in some coastal neighborhoods, but no major damage or flooding was recorded during Saturday. The sun rose again in the morning.

NHC reports that Bonnie will reappear Saturday over Pacific waters. It will then move to the sea, but parallel to the coasts of El Salvador, Guatemala and southern Mexico until Tuesday. The storm is expected to intensify, starting on Saturday.