Hurricane Iota: Sausage dogs rescued from Honduras flooding

Two dachshunds have been rescued from fast-moving floodwaters by firefighters in Honduras.

The dogs were stranded on a concrete block in a flooded river as Hurricane Iota continued to batter the region on November 18.

In videos posted to social media by local rescue crews, the two animals can be seen patiently awaiting rescue as the water rushes by.

Hurricane Iota has killed more than 30 people in Central America and the toll is expected to rise as rescue workers reach isolated communities.

While numerous villages from northern Colombia to southern Mexico have seen record rainfall swelling rivers and triggering mudslides, cities like the Honduran industrial hub of San Pedro Sula have also been hit hard.

The city's airport was completely flooded, with jetways looking more like docks and nearby tree tops barely visible above a sea of muddy water, video posted on social media showed.

The strongest storm on record to hit Nicaragua, Iota struck the coast late on Monday, unleashing Category 5 magnitude winds and inundating low-lying areas still reeling from the impact two weeks ago of Eta, another major hurricane.

Some 160,000 Nicaraguans and 70,000 Hondurans have been forced to flee to shelters.

Agencies contributed to this report.