Tropical storm Sara drenches Honduras' north coast, flash floods likely

Tropical Storm Sara started moving slightly faster on Saturday after it stalled over Honduras, drenching the northern coast of the Central American nation, swelling rivers and trapping some people at home.

Sustained rain fell overnight and continued on Saturday in the city of San Pedro Sula, where the storm cut off access to an entire community when a river crossing washed away. Through the weekend, the region could see life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.

The weather system made landfall late Thursday about 165 kilometres west-northwest of Cabo Gracias a Dios, on the Honduras-Nicaragua border. The Hurricane Center expected the storm to keep moving Saturday and into Sunday at a "somewhat faster motion west-northwestward" into the Gulf of Honduras before making landfall in Belize.

 

Sara is then expected to turn northwesterly toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, though forecasters said it probably will not reemerge into the Gulf after crossing the Yucatan.

Rain-soaked residents were on edge on Saturday as the conditions brought back memories of the disastrous November 2020 hurricane season, when two powerful storms passed through the region, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and causing widespread damage.

Standing on a riverbank, Carlos Canelas (48) acknowledged many residents like his mother had ignored official warnings to evacuate the Flor de Cuba neighbourhood of San Pedro Sula. By Saturday morning, the 77-year-old woman was cut off from the rest of the city because the river crossing collapsed and remained home with her 35-year-old special-needs son.

"That is why I did not go to work, but there is little or nothing I can do," he said. "I can cross the river swimming, but how do I get my mother out?"  The storm, however, did not stop a CONCACAF Nations League soccer match Friday in San Pedro Sula. Under heavy rain, Mexico lost 2-0 to Honduras.

In November 2020, storms Eta and Iota passed through Honduras after initially making landfall in Nicaragua as powerful Category 4 hurricanes. Northern Honduras caught the worst of the storms with torrential rains that set off flooding that displaced hundreds of thousands. Eta alone was responsible for as much as 30 inches of rain along the northern coast.

The Hurricane Center on Saturday said storm surge could raise water levels along Honduras' immediate northern coast areas by as much as 3 feet above normal.

"Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves," according to the centre. "A storm surge could raise water levels by as much as 1 to 3 feet above ground level near and to the north of where the centre of Sara crosses the coast of Belize.