Hurricane Iota is already category 4 and is approaching San Andrés: the island of Providencia would be the most affected

The islands of San Andrés and Providencia, in the Colombian Caribbean, are still on high alert due to the passage of Hurricane Iota, which in the early morning of November 16 passed to category 4, with maximum sustained winds of up to 250 km / h. This was reported by the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam).

“Iota continues to move westward, approaching the Providencia and Santa Catalina islands (…). It is located 73 kilometers from Providencia, 150 kilometers from San Andrés and 65 kilometers from Roncador “, Ideam and the mayor of the municipality of Providencia, Jorge Norberto Gari communicated at 2:30 am

According to Mayor Gari, “the priority is to save lives, please let us protect ourselves in homes, in shelters, in shelters. The priority is to save the life of the community ”.

It should be noted that strong climatic effects are expected in the three places where the eye of the hurricane will pass, whose category change (from 2 to 4) It occurred in less than 25 minutes, being the most up-to-date IDEAM report released to the public at 2:00 am

A Category 4 hurricane is one whose winds They reach up to 230 kilometers per hour and cause a rise in the tide of up to 5.5 meters. In videos that have already begun to circulate on social networks, trees fall on the island of San Andrés.

According to Ideam, the area of ​​influence of the strong storm is the departments of the Caribbean region and, for the most part, San Andrés, Providencia, Santa Catalina and their keys. Its displacement will bring with it copious rainfall, thunderstorms and strong winds.

Ideam also warns to be extremely careful in steep areas due to the probability of sudden floods and landslides. The areas alerted by the Institution are the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the south of La Guajira and north of Cesar and Magdalena.

Likewise, sectors of the departments of Norte de Santander, Santander, Bolívar, Atlántico, Córdoba, Sucre, Antioquia, Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Chocó, Risaralda, Caldas, Quindío, Valle del Cauca, western Arauca, Casanare and Meta.

According to him The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC), the trajectory over the Caribbean Sea will be two days, until it approaches the coasts of Nicaragua and northeast Honduras between the end of Sunday and the beginning of Monday.

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