Uncertainty in Providencia: still incommunicado due to the passage of Hurricane Iota

This Monday, communication with the island of Providencia was lost, due to the effects caused by the passage of Hurricane Iota, which, at dawn on November 16 it reached category 5, the top of the Saffir-Simpson scale.

“We had cellular communication until 2:00 am. After that, we had to use a satellite phone because communications with the sector were lost “ Colonel John Fredy Sepúlveda, police commander of the archipelago of the islands of San Andrés, Santa Catalina and Providencia, told radio station W.

As Juan Carlos Salazar, director of civil aviation, informed El Tiempo, They are still waiting to resume communication with Providencia to get a report on the damage Iota has caused to infrastructure so far.

Preliminary data say so the hospital on the island has lost part of the roof and, throughout the archipelago, there is no electricity service.

Providencia hosts around 6,000 people and is on alert according to the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Ideam) for the possibility of “Hurricane force winds with intensity greater than 178” kilometers per hour and waves with “heights greater than 3-4 meters”.

Civil aeronautics announced the closure of operations at Providencia and San Andrés airports guarantee the protection of passengers’ lives.

In addition to this measure, the authorities They have closed the activity on the beaches and enacted a curfew for hours in San Andrés, which lasts until the early hours of Tuesday 17 November.

The Idea he appealed to the inhabitants of the island to “take extreme measures” to prevent the passage of the hurricane, which currently reaches a speed of 15 kilometers per hour, heading towards Honduras and Nicaragua, areas that two weeks ago suffered the devastating passage of Hurricane Eta, which also hit San Andrés and Providencia.

The captain of the port of San Andrés y Providencia, Francisco Kekhan, declared this in EL TIEMPO “They are going through a very difficult situation due to the conditions generated by the passage of Hurricane Iota”. He also ensured that in addition to the ceilings, “Poles, trees have fallen, the winds are very strong”.

Kekhan warned tourists not to leave their hotels or hostels:

Please don’t go watch or gossip. It is very dangerous and can be injured

According to the Directorate-General for Maritime, the eye is above 13.5 ° N 81.6 ° W, with a minimum pressure of 925 mbar, sustained winds of 135 knots (250 km / h), gusts of up to 155 knots (287 km / h) and a displacement, at a speed of 9 knots (16 km / h) to the west.

President Iván Duque currently heads the unified command post at the national headquarters of the National Risk Management Unit, where the enlistment of humanitarian assistance to be delivered to San Andrés is detailed.

At the meeting are the Ministers of the Environment, Carlos Correa; and Transport, María Ángela Orozco; the Deputy Ministers of the Interior, Daniel Palacios, and of Health, Alexander Moscoso. The director of the National Risk Management Unit, José González, as well as senior military officials also participate.

Added to this emergency are the effects experienced in Colombia by the strong rainy season, which according to data from the newspaper El País, “Leave at least 4 dead, 16 missing and thousands of victims”.

The Caribbean region is one of the hardest hit by the rains, as are the departments of Antioquia, Santander and Chocó, where emergencies have occurred due to floods and landslides caused by heavy rain.

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Hurricane Iota is already Category 5, according to the US National Hurricane Center

In the video: the passage of Hurricane Iota through the island of San Andrés