Central America Takes Wrath of Sara's First Landfall

What is left of the former Hurricane Sara is going to swipe the U.S. Gulf Coast to start the new work week. The tropical weather event spent the weekend menacing Central America and parts of Mexico. Here is the latest on this developing situation.

Looking Back at Sara's Path Across Central America

As of late Sunday, Sara had devolved into a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph. The feature was crawling along at a slow rate of speed heading toward the west-northwest.

As expected, Sara lost a great deal of her intensity when she moved across the mountainous terrain of Central America. The northern edges of Nicaragua and Honduras saw periods of heavy rain for days before the storm moved into eastern Guatemala, Belize, and across the southeastern corner of Mexico over the weekend.

Sara unleashed catastrophic flooding and mudslides when it roared over northern Honduras. Local officials estimate that over 40 inches of rain fell in this part of Central America. The storm then made a second landfall in Belize on Sunday morning before pushing into the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico by the end of the day. The considerable time spent over land on Monday weakened Sara further.