Honduran Authorities Declare Maximum Alert Due to Julia Threat

The Government of Honduras decreed this Sunday the Red Alert, maximum in its risk scale, before the eventual onslaught of tropical storm Julia, whose bands of rains already caused floods in several departments of the country.

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"The Secretariat of State in the Offices of Risk Management and National Contingencies [Copeco] raises to Red Alert to 10 departments of the country (...), which includes Lempira, Santa Barbara, Copán, Ocotepeque, Intibucá, La Paz, Cortés, Choluteca, Valle and El Paraíso", informed the referred entity in a bulletin.

Copeco maintains in Yellow Alert (second in danger level) the rest of the country, and warned about thunderstorms, rains and swells in the coast of the Caribbean Sea as well as in the Gulf of Fonseca.

The weather is particularly hostile in the northern department of Cortes, which has been mobilized for several weeks by the inclement downpours associated with the "Central American winter", as they call the rainy season in the region.

Previously, the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (Ineter) declared that hurricane Julia was downgraded to a tropical storm after entering Nicaraguan territory.

"Julia was downgraded to the category of tropical storm, presents maximum sustained winds of 110 kilometers per hour [decreased by 10 km/h], with a translation speed of 24 km/h [decreased by 2 km/h] heading west; it is advancing over national territory and its center is currently located approximately 105 kilometers northeast of Managua," the agency said.

Ineter's forecast places the storm's departure from the national territory at a point near the port of Corinto, in the western department of Chinandega, around 19:00 hours (02:00 GMT on October 10).

"Upon exiting to waters of the Pacific Ocean [probably in the first half of the night of October 9], Julia could strengthen again, as it moves away from our territory," Ineter advanced.