The National Meteorological Institute (IMN) confirmed that Otto has downgraded from hurricane to tropical storm on Wednesday morning prompted by a slight variation in its wind speed from 120 to 110 kilometers per hour (75-68 mph).
Costa Rican government officials expect the most severe effects of Hurricane Otto to hit the country on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, President Luis Guillermo SolÃs said at a press conference on Tuesday evening.
Hurricane Otto is the seventh of the 2016 Atlantic season and the latest hurricane formation on record in the Caribbean sea, the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported.
President Luis Guillermo SolÃs ordered the mandatory evacuation of 4,000 residents of seven Northern Caribbean communities as recent forecasts state tropical storm Otto will become a hurricane in the next hours.
Forecasts from the National Meteorological Institute state that rainy conditions will increase starting Thursday evening and will maintain throughout the weekend.
Despite a strong start to the rainy season, some households in Costa Rica's Central Valley face two more weeks of water rationing while aquifers replenish.
Strong winds blowing across Costa Rica this week have downed power lines, blown over trees and sparked maritime warnings over high winds and rough seas.
