Tropical storm Julia forms near Colombia and Venezuela: it also threatens Nicaragua

() — Tropical Storm Julia formed in the extreme south of the Caribbean, near the La Guajira Peninsula in Colombia. Julia registers maximum sustained winds of 64 km/h and is expected to strengthen over the next 48 hours, before making landfall in Nicaragua on Sunday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center.

“Julia is expected to become a hurricane overnight Saturday,” the center said. The official forecast indicates that it will have an intensity at landfall of 136 km / h, which would make Julia a category 1 hurricane.

The hurricane watch in Colombia was upgraded to a hurricane warning for the islands of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina.

In Nicaragua, the hurricane watch was upgraded to a hurricane warning from Laguna de Perlas to Puerto Cabezas. A tropical cyclone warning was issued north of Puerto Cabezas to the Honduras-Nicaragua border and south of Laguna de Perlas to Bluefields.

Venezuela suffers havoc due to the passage of the tropical depression

The rains due to the passage through Venezuela of tropical depression number 13 (previously tropical wave 41) left one person dead in Sucre state, at least four injured —two in Caracas and two in Carabobo state, located in northwestern Venezuela— , about 22,000 houses affected —of which some 17 collapsed totally or partially— and fallen trees, the Vice Minister for Risk Management and Civil Protection, Carlos Pérez Ampueda, reported Thursday on the state channel VTV.

The official assured that more than 20,000 officials were deployed in the national territory as a preventive measure.

A woman watches from the balcony of her house the flow of the Guaire River in the populous neighborhood of Petare during the storm caused by a tropical depression that hit Caracas on October 6, 2022. (Photo by YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

He also warned that, while the intense rainfall continues, the population should stay away from rivers, beaches and areas that present risks, noting that the heavy rains and electrical storms will continue for the next 24 hours.

This Thursday night, President Nicolás Maduro offered a balance of the rains recorded in the last hours, in which he assured that the most affected areas are the central, Andean and llanera zones, after the tropical wave became a tropical depression .

Earlier, the Vice President of Citizen Security, Remigio Ceballos, stressed that they are constantly monitoring the weather conditions that are affecting the Capital District and states such as La Guaira, Aragua and some plains areas, among others.

From the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (Inameh) they explained that the rains are already affecting the eastern coast and that they have been gaining strength by becoming a tropical depression, with maximum sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour and strong gusts and moderate to moderate rainfall. powerful.

Osmary Hernández contributed to this report.