The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the storm crossed the coast on Monday evening.
It had strengthened at sea to a category five storm before making landfall, with maximum sustained winds of up to 160mph (260km/h).
As it struck Nicaragua it weakened to a category four, but the NHC said it remains "extremely dangerous".
The agency warned of "catastrophic winds, [a] life-threatening storm surge, and torrential rainfall" in its latest update.
Iota is the strongest Atlantic hurricane of the year and only the second November hurricane to reach category five - the last was in 1932.
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
Hurricane Iota has destroyed all the infrastructure on the Caribbean island of Providencia and led to the death of one person, Colombian President Ivan Duque has announced.
ReplyDelete"Attention to San Andres and Providencia, the passing of #Iota is a challenge that we will overcome with all the institutional response capacity. I will be traveling to the area, as soon as conditions allow, to personally assess the damage and activate immediate aid to the victims," Duque said on Monday, as broadcast on his official Twitter page.
According to the president, a ship with humanitarian aid is being prepared for departure to Providencia, where 98% of all infrastructure has been destroyed.
Duque said that at the current moment, one hurricane-related death has been confirmed.
Governor of Colombia’s San Andres and Providencia department Everth Hawkins Sjogreen said that the archipelago was left completely without power.