Hurricane Eta foreshadowing a new catastrophe for Honduras

Up to 35 inches of rain may fall through Friday in Nicaragua and Honduras

• Hurricane Eta is forecast to produce catastrophic flooding in parts of Central America.

• Flooding from Hurricane Mitch in 1998 killed thousands in Central America.

• Eta's forecast has some things in common with Mitch.

Hurricane Eta's potentially catastrophic strike in Central America is stirring memories of another deadly storm 22 years ago: Hurricane Mitch, which claimed thousands of lives in Honduras and Nicaragua.

After its Nicaragua landfall, Eta is forecast to move very slowly through Central America much of the rest of this week.

This slow movement over mountainous terrain could trigger catastrophic inland flash flooding and mudslides. Up to 35 inches of rain may fall through Friday in Nicaragua and Honduras, according to the NHC.

While each hurricane and its impacts are unique, this forecast has some unsettling similarities to one of the deadliest Atlantic hurricanes on record.

In late October 1998, Hurricane Mitch exploded into a Category 5 hurricane in just four days in the western Caribbean Sea north of Honduras, holding onto that intensity when it was as close as 60 miles north of the Honduran coast.

Then Mitch slowed down.

Mitch's intensity plunged from Category 5 to Category 1 before its Honduras landfall. But it took two days for Mitch's center to drift south and make that landfall, pummeling the coast and offshore islands with destructive winds, surge, waves and torrential rain.

Eta has the potential to slow down near or just after its landfall and could lash the coast of northeastern Nicaragua Tuesday longer than usual for a landfalling hurricane.

There's no guarantee Eta will end up being nearly as deadly as Mitch, but some resemblances are certainly disconcerting.

Source: www.Weather.com

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