Hurricane Eta

      On Saturday, October 31, 2020, Hurricane Eta began forming above the Caribbean Sea. By Tuesday November 3, the storm was classified as a Category 5 hurricane. The next day, Wednesday, November 4, the storm was downgraded to a Category 4, and made landfall the same day at around 4:15 p.m. Eastern time just south of Puerto Cabezas, a city on Nicaragua's northern Caribbean coast. 

Source: The Washington Post

    At 4:00 pm on Wednesday, the center of Hurricane Eta was located about 15 miles southwest of Puerto Cabezas. The National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted a storm surge of up to 14 to 21 feet near the coast (MSN, 2020). A hurricane warning was put into effect for a 150-mile stretch of Nicaraguan coastline, from the Honduras/Nicaragua border to Sandy Bay Sirpi on east-central Nicaragua's Caribbean coast (Hanna & Waldrop, 2020). Before landfall, Nicaraguan officials evacuated more than 3,000 people to more than 15 shelters, primarily to schools and churches in Puerto Cabezas (MSN, 2020). Many residents who live on islands off the Nicaraguan coast had to be evacuated by boat (MSN, 2020). 

Landfall came hours after it had been expected. Eta's eye had hovered just offshore through the night and Tuesday morning (CBS, 2020). The hurricane rapidly intensified from a tropical storm and neared Category 5 status in less than 24 hours before reaching the coast (Anna-Cat Birgida, M.C., 2020). It could be one of the region’s most damaging hurricanes since Hurricane Felix in 2007, which caused at least 130 deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage (Anna-Cat Birgida, M.C., 2020). Once the hurricane hit the coast, the destruction was devastating. The powerful winds ripped the roofs off of homes and buildings, and the heavy rainfall caused detrimental floods in northern Nicaragua, as well as in neighboring  Honduras, where a 12-year-old girl died in a mudslide in San Pedro Sula, the main population center in northern Honduras (PBS). In Honduras, over 500 people had to evacuate their homes to escape flooding, and at least six rivers were reported to be causing significant flooding (PBS, 2020). 

Source: CNN

The storm had maximum sustained winds near 140 mph at landfall (Hanna & Waldrop, 2020). Eta, the 28th named storm of the 2020 season, ties the record for the most named storms ever observed in an Atlantic hurricane season (MSN, 2020). It also became the third most powerful November hurricane on record in the Atlantic, eclipsed only by Hurricane Michelle in 2001 and the Cuba Hurricane of 1932 (MSN, 2020). 

Puerto Cabezas is in one of Nicaragua's poorest regions, with Nicaragua being the poorest country in Central America (Hanna & Waldrop, 2020). Over 42% of the Nicaraguan population was living in poverty as of 2020 (Bro, 2020). Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast is home to the country’s Indigenous Miskito people and Afro-Nicaraguan population. These communities are some of the poorest in Nicaragua, and are isolated from many of the resources concentrated in the country's capital, Managua (Hanna & Waldrop, 2020). The isolation and lack or resources of these communities made them extremely vulnerable to this storm event. 

The hurricane also hit Nicaragua at a time when the locals were already suffering the economic consequences of a global pandemic. 2020 marks the third straight year of economic downturn after a mass protest movement against President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, led to a nationwide sociopolitical crisis in 2018 (MSN, 2020). 

Nicaragua is home to many coffee farmers, most of whom make their entire livelihood off of the international export of their crops (Bro, 2020). Coffee in Nicaragua is by far the most important crop in the economy, and it is the highest source of agricultural export revenues in the country (Bro, 2020).The harvesting season for coffee in Nicaragua was just about to begin when Hurricane Eta spun through the coast, damaging coffee crops with its winds and floods (PBS). In previous studies regarding shifts in sustainability in crops due to climate change, coffee has received much attention, given its importance in the global market and the large number of smallholder producers worldwide that depend on it as a main source of income (Bro, 2020). 

This storm event can be attributed partially to climate change. Eta is the 28th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, as well as the fifth to reach major hurricane status, which has historically been unheard of for November (The Guardian, 2020). The rapid intensification of some of these storms is consistent with the extra energy afforded them by the heating of the air and ocean through human activity (The Guardian, 2020). The loss of a natural resource which is so heavily depended upon to sustain an already impoverished community could be detrimental. Because the majority of the Nicaraguan population is already considered to be "food insecure", meaning they do not know where their next meal is going to come from, the loss or damage of such a critical resource could mean life or death. 

Source: CNN

While the aftermath of this devastating tropical cyclone event is still in progress, it is important for us to consider the very real and long-lasting impacts that climate change can have on our communities, especially those with access to fewer resources. 

Video Clip Depicting Hurricane Eta Devastation in Nicaragua

References

Anna-Cat Brigida, M. C. (2020, November 4). Hurricane Eta makes landfall in Nicaragua as a fierce Category 4 storm; flood disaster looms. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/11/03/hurricane-eta-nicaragua-flooding/.

Bro, A. S. (2020). Climate Change Adaptation, Food Security, and Attitudes toward Risk among Smallholder Coffee Farmers in Nicaragua. Sustainability, 12(17), 6946. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12176946

CBS Interactive. (2020, November 4). Hurricane Eta slams into Nicaragua with devastating winds and rains. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-eta-category-4-nicaragua-caribbean-coast/#:~:text=The%20heart%20of%20powerful%20Hurricane%20Eta%20began%20moving,down%20from%20an%20overnight%20peak%20of%20150%20mph.

Guardian News and Media. (2020, November 3). Hurricane Eta lashes Nicaragua, raising fears of disastrous floods. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/03/hurricane-eta-nicaragua-floods.

Hanna, J., & Waldrop, T. (2020, November 4). Hurricane Eta is battering Nicaragua after making landfall. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/03/weather/hurricane-eta-tuesday/index.html.

Hurricane Eta makes landfall in Nicaragua as a fierce Category 4 storm; flood disaster looms. (n.d.). https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/hurricane-eta-nears-nicaragua-as-a-fierce-category-4-storm-flood-disaster-looms/ar-BB1aEFvL.

Hurricane Eta pounds impoverish region in Nicaragua. YouTube. (2020, November 4). https://youtu.be/dk1oKyt4YyY.

Press, A. (2020, November 4). Tropical storm Eta hits Nicaragua with rains, deadly mudslides. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/tropical-storm-eta-hits-nicaragua-with-rains-deadly-mudslides.