By Wendy Anders

A red alert for Costa Rica’s northern coast remains in effect due to the expected arrival of Otto late tonight, with residents having been evacuated, schools closed, and clinics in the surrounding region outfitted with additional emergency supplies and increased emergency staff, said the National Emergency Commission (CNE).

A hurricane warning continues from Limon, Costa Rica, to Bluefields, Nicaragua, said The Weather Channel, explaining that “the difference in impacts between a 75 mph hurricane and 70 mph tropical storm is negligible.”

Early this morning, meteorologists at the Miami, U.S.-based National Hurricane Center detected a slight decrease in wind speeds in the late-season Caribbean storm and downgraded Otto back to tropical storm status.

However, the storm could pick up again before making landfall either sometime tonight or early Thursday, said a Weather Channel report.

Meanwhile, the rest of Costa Rica’s and Nicaragua’s Atlantic coastlines are under a hurricane watch, said The Weather Channel.

Otto is headed slowly west-northwestward and “is expected to speed up its forward motion a tad before landfall,” said The Weather Channel.

“Tropical storm-force winds currently extend up to 70 miles from the center of circulation, making Otto a small tropical cyclone,” continued the meteorologists, who noted that significantly higher than average temperatures in the southwest Caribbean are likely contributing to the formation and intensification of Otto.

Even if Otto makes landfall as a tropical storm, it would be the latest in a calendar year to do so in Nicaragua.

Forecasters warned that heavy rain, flash flooding and mudslides will be major concerns for Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama with some locations receiving 20 inches of rain from Otto.

“In addition, areas of heavy rain well to the north of the circulation may trigger flooding in parts of Honduras and Belize,” said the Weather Channel.

Readers: Stay safe, don’t go out in heavy rains unless absolutely necessary, and stay away from rivers and coastlines during this stormy time.