Hurricane Otto Kills at Least 9 in Costa Rica

Tropical Storm Otto killed at least nine people in Costa Rica and then headed into the Pacific Ocean after making landfall as the southernmost hurricane on record to hit Central America.

    Otto made landfall on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast on Thursday as a dangerous Category 2 storm but it faded to tropical storm force before emerging over the eastern Pacific early Friday.

    Authorities in Nicaragua said the hurricane had damaged houses, but so far there were no reports of casualties. Earlier, heavy rains from the storm were blamed for three deaths in Panama.

    Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis announced that nine people had been killed in the area of Bagaces and in the town of Upala, just south of the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border.

    He said earlier at least six people were missing in the nearby town of Bijagua. Solis said as much water fell on the area in a few hours as normally falls in a month and some people had been trapped by rising waters.

Source: QNA