Around 22 people died in Central America due to the newly-formed Tropical Storm Nate. It drenched the path that would make way for the potential landfall on the US Gulf Coast over the weekend.
A state of emergency was declared and people were asked to evacuate the coastal area and barrier island as declared by the Louisiana officials. The evacuations already began at some offshore oil platforms in the Gulf.
The storm could cause dangerous flooding by pouring 38 to 58 centimetres of rain as it moved over Honduras having higher accumulations in a few places.
The maximum sustained winds was of 65 kph in the evening which is expected to strengthen over the north-western Caribbena Sea on Friday night and Saturday before hitting a strike on the Cancun region at the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
The US Gulf coast is expected to be hit near New Orleans over the weekend at hurricane strength. The situation in Nicaragua Nate’s arrival was followed by near-constant rain that made the ground saturated and rivers swollen. The whole country was on alert and warned of floods and landslips.
Rosario Murillo, Nicaragua’s vice-president and spokewoman said that at least 15 people died due to storm but the details were not provided. It was reported that two women and a man working for the Health ministry were swept away by a flooded canal in the central municipality of Juigalpa.
The government closed schools across the nation,while in Costa Rica seven death occurred and 15 people went missing and 5,000 residents landed into emergency shelters due to floods mentioned Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Organism.
John Bel Edwards, the governor declared a state of emergency and 1,300 Natioanl Guard troops were mobilized and 15 moved to the New Orleans to check the fragile pumping system.
Landfall has been forecasted in the south-east Louisiana on Sunday morning and the residents were informed rainfall, storm surge and severe winds. Edwards mentioned that Nate is about to move quickly instead of stall and drop tremendous amounts of rain on the state. The state official presumed New Orlaens not to run into problems as the pumps will be able to handle water.
However, steps were taken by New Orleans officials to bolster the city’s pump and drainage system, the weaknesses were revealed during the summer flash floods.
Six production platform out of the 737 manned platforms in the Gulf had been evacuated mentioned the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s New Orleans.
One moveable rig was taken out of the storm’s path but no drilling rigs were evacuated.
The storm was centered about 75 kilometres west of Puero Lempira, Honduras and moved north-northwest near 17 kph.There was less than 15 per cent of current oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut resulting in 254,607 barrels of oil per day.
Threats still prevailed for the US coast, the storm could brush the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula by Saturday night and further approach the US Gulf Coast as a hurricane by Sunday morning. Forecasters mentioned of hurricane’s possibility in Mexico on Saturday night.
