Hurricane Ida made landfall Thursday morning over east central Nicaragua, pelting the Central American nation with heavy rain.

Ida, a Category 1 hurricane, had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph) and gusts up to 90 mph (145 kph), the National Hurricane Center said.

Flash floods and mudslides in Nicaragua and Honduras are expected. Because Ida is a slow-moving storm, rainfall totals could approach 30 inches in some locations, meteorologists said.

The storm is expected to weaken as it moves over Nicaragua and into Honduras, the National Hurricane Center said.

Ida is forecast to emerge into the western Caribbean Sea on Saturday morning and then slowly move toward the north-northwest, brushing past Cancun, Mexico, on Monday afternoon.

After that, forecast models offer a variety of possibilities as to which way the storm could head and how intense it could be. Ida, or remnants of the storm, could make landfall anywhere along the U.S. Gulf Coast late next week.

It is too early to pinpoint a specific location. area of high pressure over the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Ida may contribute to the abnormally high tides early next week. Ida is the Atlantic region's ninth named storm. The Atlantic hurricane season ends November 30.