Tropical Storm Sara drenches Honduras’ northern coast

Tropical Storm Sara stalled over Honduras Saturday, drenching the northern coast of the Central American nation and swelling rivers.

The area could see life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides through the weekend, according to the Miami-based U.S National Hurricane Center.

Sustained rain fell overnight and continued into Saturday morning in the city of San Pedro Sula, where there were no immediate signs of serious flooding.

People watched nervously as conditions brought back memories of the disastrous November 2020 hurricane season, when two powerful storms passed through the region, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and causing widespread damage.

The weather system made landfall late Thursday about 165 kilometers west-northwest of Cabo Gracias a Dios, on the Honduras-Nicaragua border.

The Hurricane Center expects the storm will move near the Bay Islands of Honduras on Saturday before approaching Belize.

Sara is then expected to turn northwesterly toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, although forecasters said it probably will not reemerge into the Gulf after crossing the Yucatan.

In November 2020, Eta and Iota passed through Honduras after initially making landfall in Nicaragua as powerful Category 4 hurricanes. Northern Honduras caught the worst of the storms with torrential rains and flooding that displaced hundreds of thousands. Eta alone was responsible for as much as 70 centimeters of rain along the northern coast.