Hurricane Julia hits Nicaragua with torrential rainfall

Hurricane Julia hit Nicaragua's central Caribbean coast on Sunday and dumped torrential rains across Central America before an expected reemergence over the Pacific. Julia hit as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, though its winds had dipped to tropical storm force of 60 mph, by early afternoon as it pushed across Nicaragua.

The US National Hurricane Center said Julia was centered about 20 miles north-northeast of Managua, the capital, and was moving west at 16 mph. It said life-threatening flash floods and mudslides were possible across Central America and southern Mexico through Tuesday, with the storm expected to bring as much as 15 inches of rain in isolated areas.

There had been no reports of deaths so far, but power and communications were cut to some areas. 9,500 people had been evacuated to shelters. The storm was forecast to emerge over the Pacific and skirt the coasts of El Salvador and Guatemala, a region already saturated by weeks of heavy rains.