At least two people were dead in Panama Tuesday and others missing as tropical storm Otto lashed the western Caribbean with heavy rain and winds, according to dpa. Authorities warned of widespread flooding after two days of storms that drenched the country's western coast. More than 200 people were evacuated in the western province of Chiriqui. The US National Hurricane Centre said Otto was expected to strengthen to a hurricane later Tuesday, and issued a hurricane watch for the Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica, where 4,000 people were ordered evacuated ahead of the storm, and southern Nicaragua, where evacuations were also underway. Otto is the 15th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and comes unusually late in the year. If the storm indeed becomes a hurricane and makes landfall in Central America it will be the first storm on record to do so so late in the year, according to the US Weather Channel.
