San José: Costa Rica on Tuesday ordered the evacuation of residents along its Caribbean coast to avoid fatalities from the approaching Tropical Storm Otto, which is forecast to grow into a hurricane.
"I ask the country to remain calm and help in the evacuation process, which will start immediately and firmly," President Luis Guillermo Solis told a news conference.
"We will not allow people to remain in at-risk areas and loss of human life."
Otto was on Tuesday several hundred miles out over the Caribbean sea with winds up to 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour, the US National Hurricane Center in Florida said on its website.
It forecast the storm would move west overnight and could strengthen into a hurricane Wednesday before approaching Costa Rica and Nicaragua by Thursday.
The center warned of a risk of deadly flooding and mud slides.
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