Hurricane Otto Heads to Nicaragua and Costa Rica

HAVANA TIMES — Hurricane Otto, which turned into the seventh Atlantic hurricane of the season on Tuesday, is headed toward the border area of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, according to information provided by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami.

The center of the storm packs 75 mph winds and was last located at 475 kilometers (295 miles)east of Bluefields, Nicarauga and 230 miles east of Limon, Costa Rica. It is currently slowly moving at 2 mph.

In Nicaragua, the South Caribbean region, Zelaya Central, Chontales and Río San Juan are under red alert, while the rest of the country is on yellow alert.

The formation of the tropical depression that then became a hurricane was unusual, with just one week to the end of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.

In Nicaragua, authorities currently predict that the hurricane will enter between Monkey Point and San Juan de Nicaragua, sometime Thursday afternoon.

The Ministry of Education has suspended classes for Thursday and Friday in the departments under red alert.

An evacuation plan is underway for vulnerable zones, especially those at risk from flooding.

Otto would be the first hurricane to ever reach Costa Rican territory. Meanwhile, Nicaragua suffered great human and material losses from Hurricane Juana in 1988 and Mitch in 1998.