ORLANDO, Fla. – The rain-heavy remains of Hurricane Eta flooded homes in Honduras on Thursday as the death toll across Central America rose to at least eight. Forecasters said the once-mighty storm was expected to regather form and head toward Cuba and Florida by early next week.
The storm that hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday had become more of a vast tropical rainstorm, but it was advancing so slowly and dumping so much rain that much of Central America remained on high alert.
As of 11 p.m. on Thursday, Eta had sustained winds of 35 mph and was moving northeast at 12 mph. It was centered 275 miles west of Grand Cayman. The latest models are beginning to agree on the storm’s long-term path, which could bring it toward the Sunshine State.
The latest track shows part of Florida still in the storm’s cone of uncertainty.
Guatemala authorities reported four dead Thursday, adding to two victims in Honduras and two in Nicaragua.
Two children died when their home collapsed under heavy rains in the central Guatemala department of Quiche, according to a statement by local firefighters. A third person also died in Quiche, but details were not immediately available. President Alejandro Giammattei confirmed a fourth death in a landslide in Chinautla north of the capital Wednesday night.
Authorities reported nearly 100 homes damaged by flooding and landslides in Guatemala.
Heavy rain was forecast to continue across Honduras through at least Thursday as Eta moves toward the northern city of San Pedro Sula.
Much of the town of Villanueva, just south of San Pedro Sula, was under floodwaters as Thursday dawned. The Ulua river overwhelmed its banks, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.
Dozens of residents of the San Pedro Sula neighborhood of Satelite had to abandon their homes at 4 a.m. Thursday when water from the Chamelecon river arrived at their doorsteps.
Honduran officials earlier reported that a 12-year-old girl died in a mudslide and a 15-year-old boy drowned trying to cross a rain-swollen river. Two other deaths were reported in Nicaragua.
Marvin Aparicio of Honduras' emergency management agency said Wednesday that some 457 homes had been damaged, mostly by floodwaters. There were 41 communities cut off by washed out roads and nine bridges in the country were wiped out by swollen rivers. He said six people were reported missing.
Among those rescued were Karen Patricia Serrano, her husband and five children. Their home was flooded with waters from the Lancetilla river and they had been in a shelter in the northern city of Tela since Monday.
“We lost everything,” the 32-year-old woman said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do. My husband is 74 years old and because of his age he can’t work. I even lost my little animals,” she said, referring to chickens, cats and dogs.
Oscar Armando Martinez Flores, his wife and seven children were in the same shelter. Their home near the Lancetilla river also flooded, and they made it out only with the clothes they were wearing.
“The rains began Monday and the river overflowed,” Martinez said Wednesday. “The firefighters and police arrived to take us out because the houses were flooded.”
Martinez was already in dire straits before the storm. A construction worker, he hadn’t been able to find work in eight months since the coronavirus pandemic began there. He has been selling tortillas to keep his family afloat.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center forecast that parts of Nicaragua and Honduras could receive 15 to 25 inches (380 to 635 millimeters) of rain, with 40 inches (1,000 millimeters) possible in some isolated parts.