Tropical Storm Sarah continued its course toward Belize near Honduras’ Bay Islands on Saturday, bringing life-threatening flooding and mudslides to parts of Central America. Its path is not expected to affect the United States, but forecasters said some of its debris could be felt in Florida next week.
As of Saturday morning, Sala’s center was located about 8 miles east of Roatan, Honduras, with maximum sustained winds near 45 mph and high gusts.
A tropical storm warning was issued Saturday for much of Honduras’ northern coast, the Bay Islands, Guatemala’s Caribbean coast, the coast of Belize, and Mexico’s coast from Puerto Costa Maya south to Chetumal.
Some of these areas could see between 15 and 25 inches of rain from Sala into next week, with some isolated areas in northern Honduras potentially seeing a total of about 35 inches.
Sarah is moving west and is expected to continue its approach to Belize on Saturday, making landfall in Belize during the day on Sunday. From there, Sarah should weaken and dissipate by Sunday or late Monday, the National Hurricane Center said.
Sala’s rains caused widespread flooding on Honduras’s northern coast, prompting the government to declare a national emergency on Friday afternoon. Residents were urged to stay away from areas at risk of flooding, especially riverbanks.
A stagnant storm that reminds us of previous disasters
On Friday night, the National Hurricane Center reported that Sara was stationary just off the north coast of Honduras.
Hurricane Mitch similarly moved slowly through Honduras in 1998, dumping 35.89 inches of rain on Corteca on the south coast. The National Hurricane Center’s final report said higher rainfall totals may not have been reported.
Mitch was one of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes on record, killing at least 9,000 people, mostly in Honduras, with 5,677 people dead, and Nicaragua killing 2,863.
‘Devastating’ floods in Central America
In Tela, northern Honduras, Sara’s rains caused the Arizona River to overflow and flooded roads by Friday. In La Ceiba, the Cangrejal River overflowed, partially collapsing a bridge and submerging homes along the river.
Government officials announced Friday that about 1,000 Hondurans were evacuated to evacuation centers.
“This rainfall will cause widespread, potentially life-threatening flash flooding and landslides, especially along and near the Sierra La Esperanza Mountains,” the hurricane center said.
A storm surge of 1 to 3 feet could bring “large and destructive waves” along the northern coast of Honduras and near where Sala crosses the coast of Belize.
The rest of Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, eastern Guatemala, western Nicaragua, and all of Mexico’s Quintana Roo state could see precipitation totals of 5 to 10 inches, with up to 15 inches in some places.
Tropical Cyclone Sarah Tracker
tropical storm salad spaghetti model
Illustrations include a variety of predictive tools and models, and not all are created equal. The Hurricane Center uses only the top four or five best-performing models to make predictions.
Contributor: Reuters; Dinah Boyles Pulver, USA TODAY
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
