Flood fears as storm hits Central America

BLUEFIELDS, Nicaragua — Hurricane Julia raked across Nicaragua on Sunday, lashing the country with winds and heavy rain and bringing potentially life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides to much of Central America and southern Mexico.

Maximum sustained winds were estimated at 140 kilometers per hour when the storm made landfall near the Laguna de Perlas area, the country's weather agency said.

By midday, the fifth Atlantic hurricane of the season had weakened to a tropical storm with top sustained winds of nearly 97 km per hour as it churned westward across Nicaragua, unleashing a dangerous storm surge along the coast, damaging homes in the country's interior and leaving some towns incommunicado.