Though Hurricane Eta has yet to make landfall in Nicaragua, as of 9 a.m., Tuesday weather experts say the Category 4 hurricane is already battering the coast with strong winds and rain that have caused massive outages in affected areas. 

10 AM EST Tuesday, November 3 Hurricane #Eta Key Messages: Extremely dangerous Eta expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds, flash flooding, and landslides across portions of Central America. https://t.co/lQ8WhA2D3G pic.twitter.com/mW0ReBaBJw

— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) November 3, 2020

"Eta has become an impressive November hurricane as it continues to undergo rapid strengthening," the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Monday afternoon.

By late Monday night, the storm was about 45 miles from Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, with sustained winds of 150 mph. Before making landfall in Nicaragua on Tuesday morning, the NHC said Eta is anticipated to strengthen into a Category 5.

The slow-moving 28th named storm of the season has the lowest pressure among its seasonal contemporaries, which some weather experts say is a sign of its strength. 

The region is expected to withstand catastrophic and life-threatening conditions -- including flooding, landslides and nearly 3 feet of rain in portions of Central America -- through the week before the remnants of Hurricane Eta move back into the Caribbean, Mauldin said.

Should Eta reach Category 5 status, it will be only the second Atlantic hurricane of that strength in November on record. It will also be the first Category 5 to hit Nicaragua since Felix in 2007.

Conditions were already deteriorating Monday night along the northeast coast of Nicaragua, and will worsen as Eta makes landfall. The storm may be one of the worst flooding events Nicaragua has seen since Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which killed more than 10,000 people.