Central American states count cost of Iota amid search for bodies

1. Among the worst affected areas are the Penas de Blanca Mountains in northern Nicaragua's Matagalpa department.

2. Iota made landfall in northwestern Nicaragua on Monday as a giant Category 5 hurricane — the year’s biggest Atlantic storm — and left behind “catastrophic” damage, the government in Managua said.

2.1. It said 250 municipal brigades had been dispatched to collect fallen trees and debris from the hurricane.t

3. Initial estimates put the number of people affected by the hurricane at 4.6 million in the impoverished region.

4. In Honduras, where at least 14 people died in landslides in the western department of Lempira

5. Rescue workers dug through mounds of thick mud Thursday

6. left at least 44 people dead amid a wave of destruction.