Hurricane Ida rips into Nicaragua, damages homes, schools, forcing evacuation of thousands

Hurricane Ida rips into Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast

MANAGUA, Nicaragua — Hurricane Ida swept onto Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast Thursday, destroying homes, damaging schools and downing bridges before losing steam and becoming a tropical storm as it moved inland.

Ida’s winds swirled at 75 mph (125 kph) when the storm struck land around sunrise in Tasbapauni, about 60 miles northeast of Bluefields, said meteorologist Dennis Feltgen of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The battering wrecked all but 20 of the 100 or so flimsy, wooden shacks in nearby Karawala, a fishing village near the mouth of the Rio Grande de Matagalpa, Nicaragua’s National Civil Defense director, Mario Perez, said.

“There was major damage in the region’s infrastructure, such as fallen bridges, damaged schools and government buildings, and electrical transmission towers and telephone service were knocked out,” Perez said.

No deaths or injuries had been reported, but Perez said officials were still trying to get information from the sparsly populated, jungle-covered region.

The fast-developing storm grew into a tropical depression and then a hurricane within little more than a day, then lost power as it stalled over eastern Nicaragua, with winds slowing to 40 mph (65 kph).

Ida could dump as much as 20 inches (500 millimeters) of rain on the swampy mainland, with the risk of floods and mudslides, before weakening to a tropical depression as early as Thursday night while moving toward Honduras, according to the Miami-based hurricane center.

More than 3,000 people were evacuated before the storm hit — 800 of those from homes on Corn Island and nearby Little Corn Island, where strong winds damaged about 45 homes, smashed boats, toppled trees and knocked out power. Residents were taken to the port authority building and concrete hotels.

About 2,500 people live on the two islands, which are popular tourist destinations.

Rowena Kandler, owner of the Sunrise Hotel on Corn Island, said many fruit trees on the hotel’s 13-acre ranch were damaged.

“We don’t have electricity or water,” she said. “Everything is on the ground now. Thank God we’re alive.”

The hotel had two guests who rode out the storm Wednesday night, but Kandler said they left for the airport Thursday morning.

More than 1,000 people were evacuated in Bluefields, and the airport closed.

At the Oasis Hotel and Casino, a half block from the shore in Bluefields, receptionist Adelis Molina said winds were strong and guests from the United States, Italy and Guatemala were hunkering down inside.

Heavy rains and winds kept officials from evacuating about 80 people on Cayos Perla, but authorities said they planned to used speedboats to get them out.

The storm is expected to regain strength when it emerges over the Caribbean Sea on Saturday, the center said.

Associated Press Writer Catherine Shoichet in Mexico City contributed to this report.