Hurricane Otto made landfall in southern Nicaragua just north of the country's border with Costa Rica on Thursday as the category 2 hurricane was making its way towards the Pacific Ocean, the US National Hurricane Center said, according to dpa. Landing just a little south of the Nicaraguan coastal city of Bluefields, which had been destroyed in 1988 by Hurricane Juana, Otto became the southernmost hurricane on record to make landfall in Central America. Otto made landfall with maximum sustained winds of 110 miles per hour (175 kilometres per hour), but it is expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it moves across southern Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica towards the Pacific Ocean. The governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica have been on high alert due to the hurricane. Costa Rica ordered the compulsory evacuation of 4,000 people in several high-risk communities in the North and South Caribbean. In Nicaragua, shelters in Bluefields and other safe areas will house about 10,000 people, the government said. Otto left at least three dead and more missing as it battered Panama with high winds and rain this week.
