Nicaraguan military help families who arrived from Monkey Point to Bluefields, July 1, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @JaelMendozaM

Bluefields, July 1 (RHC)-- On Friday, Nicaragua and Costa Rica decreed the evacuation of people, the protection of heritage, and other preventive measures in the face of the imminent impact on their Caribbean territories of the winds and rains generated by Tropical Storm Bonnie.

Early Friday, Costa Rica's National Meteorological Institute (IMN) informed that Bonnie's center was located 510 km northeast of the province of Limon, moving at 32 km/h, and had strong winds, with a maximum of 65 km/h.

An hour later, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) estimated that Bonnie's center was 370 km east of the Nicaraguan city of Bluefields.  During the afternoon, the tropical storm is expected to cross between the south of Nicaragua and the northern border of Costa Rica.

While crossing over Central American lands, Bonnie will cause precipitation that could exceed 100 mm of rain. The Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies (INETER) monitors the area between Laguna de Perlas and the mouth of the San Juan River, where it is estimated that the rains will be intense.

The Nicaraguan Navy suspended sailings in the 11 ports on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, as well as in the ports of the Great Lake, whose extension of over 8,000 square kilometers allows waves with heights similar to the waves that are formed at sea.

In eastern Nicaragua, authorities evacuated families from the Cayos Miskitos, located some 30 kilometers east of the Autonomous Region of the South Caribbean (RACS), which has over 402.282 inhabitants.  They were transferred to Bluefields.

The inhabitants of a community on the main island of the Corn Island archipelago were transfered towards the interior of the island.  In Bluefields, 50 temporary shelter centers were activated, where some 1,200 people living in 270 homes prone to flooding would be transferred.