BELMOPAN – Tropical Storm Sara Sunday’s storm strengthened into a tropical depression after making landfall in Belize, where forecasters expected heavy rain to cause flash flooding and mudslides.

The storm hit Belize after flood the northern coast of Honduraswhere it has been stagnating since Friday, causing rivers to swell and trapping some people in their homes. The U.S. National Hurricane Center expects Sara to continue to lose strength as it moves inland over the Yucatan Peninsula on Sunday.

Parts of Belize, El Salvador, eastern Guatemala, western Nicaragua, and the Mexican state of Quintana Roo could receive up to 5 inches (13 cm) of rain, with localized totals reaching 15 inches (38 cm). The conditions “will result in areas of flash flooding, possibly significant flooding, as well as potential landslides,” according to the Hurricane Center.

Meanwhile, northern Honduras was not yet safe. The center expected Sara to drop up to 3 inches of rain there, but in some areas the total could reach 40 inches (1 meter), with “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding” still possible.

Residents of the community of Potrerillos, located on a tropical plain in northwest Honduras, were evacuated from their homes due to the weather system, and some sought refuge in a school-turned-shelter.

Food, plastic bags filled with clothes, appliances and other items filled the shelter on Sunday as people waited to find out what to do after a swollen river flooded their homes.

However, the community was already facing this dilemma. It was ravaged in November 2020, when storms Eta and Iota crossed Honduras after initially making landfall in Nicaragua as powerful Category 4 hurricanes. Northern Honduras was hardest hit by the storms, with torrential rains triggering flooding that displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Eta alone was responsible for up to 30 inches (76 cm) of rain along the northern coast.

“This flood that just happened is small compared to that of Eta and Iota… There were lots of people here,” said resident Israel Martinez, pointing to the shelter where he had been relocated after the storms of 2020 and again this weekend. “For the moment, few are accommodated here. »

___

Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano contributed to this report from Mexico City.