Ida attained hurricane force just before making landfall about 75 miles north of Nicaragua’s fishing port of Bluefields.

It had earlier pummeled some offshore islands, where hundreds of people were evacuated from their makeshift homes.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that the storm could trigger up to 20 inches of rainfall across parts of Nicaragua and neighboring Honduras.

Such excessive precipitation could unleash deadly mudslides and flash flooding, according to the center’ forecasters.

Ida is the ninth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and quickly strengthened into a tropical storm late Wednesday. It then reached hurricane status just a few hours later.

While forming over the southwestern Caribbean earlier in the week, it brought flooding to four Panamanian provinces. Many roads were washed out across the affected region.

The storm was expected to weaken during its passage over eastern Nicaragua and Honduras, then regain strength as it moved just east of Cancun, Mexico, into the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend.

Hurricane Ida Track

Satellite Loop Data: CIMSS