Tropical Storm Alma hits Nicaragua

Tropical Storm Alma, the first of the season, slammed into Nicaragua's Pacific coast

Tropical Storm Alma, the first of the season, slammed into Nicaragua's Pacific coast, killing at least one person.

Torrential rain flooded homes in the Nicaraguan capital city of Managua and other cities and towns along the Pacific coast.

Nicaraguan Civil Defense Chief Colonel Mario Perez said help is at hand

SOUNDBITE: Nicaraguan Civil Defense Chief Colonel Mario Perez, saying (Spanish):

"Authorities are getting prepared, but here we are talking about a group of neighborhoods in the same situation. The police, firemen, the Red Cross as well as the army are helping out, we are all working in the same way."

Troops in military vehicles dashed out to towns along the coast to evacuate people in danger by the busload. But other residents, many of them survivors of previous storms, were reluctant to leave their homes.

Nicaraguan authorities had planned a mass evacuation on the Pacific coast, where they say some 25,000 people were at risk. Some 10,000 people may have to be evacuated from the capital city Managua.

The eastern Pacific hurricane season began May 15.

Deborah Lutterbeck, reuters