Hurricane Iota heads for already battered Central America

Iota rapidly gained strength after becoming the 13th hurricane of the Atlantic season Sunday, threatening to bring more dangerous winds and rains to Nicaragua and Honduras — countries recently clobbered by Category 4 Hurricane Eta.

Nicaragua’s government said authorities had begun evacuating some people near the country’s border with Honduras, an area that forecasts said likely would be in Iota’s path.

Iota became a Category 2 hurricane late Sunday afternoon, and the US National Hurricane Center warned it would likely be an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm when it approached the Central America mainland late Monday.