Tropical Storm Alma hit the western coast of Central America with heavy rains and high winds on Thursday after becoming the first named storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season, which began May 15. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said Alma had maximum sustained winds near 100 kilometers per hour (kph) and was expected to strengthen into a hurricane before hitting the northwest corner of Nicaragua late Thursday. The tropical storm was centered about 80 kilometers southwest of Managua and was moving north at 11 kph. The NHC predicted the storm would move through the southern border region of El Salvador and Honduras early Friday and warned that Alma could drop as much as 50 centimeters of rain in places. Authorities issued hurricane warnings for the coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras. Heavy rains caused flooding in Managua. Costa Rican authorities evacuated low-lying areas and set up more than 160 storm shelters after Alma dropped rain over the country for 24 hours. A few roads were blocked by landslides.
