Iota's devastation comes into focus in storm-weary nation

摘要

The devastation caused by Hurricane Iota became clearer yesterday as images emerged showing piles of windtossed lumber that used to be homes and concrete walls that were pounded into pieces by the second Category 4 storm to blast Nicaragua's Caribbean coast in two weeks. Nicaragua Vice President and first lady Rosario Murillo yesterday raised the nation's death toll to 16. The victims were spread across the country, swept away by swollen rivers or buried in landslides. Rescuers searched at the site of a landslide in northern Nicaragua, where the local government confirmed four deaths and neighbors spoke of at least 16. A short video from the nation's emergency management agency showed a massive bowl-shaped mountainside shrouded in clouds that collapsed. Police blocked media access to the site on the Macizo de Peñas Blancas, a mountain in Matagalpa province, about 80 miles north of Managua. There were seven confirmed dead at the mountain, and the search continued, Murillo said. Miguel Rodríguez, who works on a ranch next to the site, said he saw at least seven bodies.