Nicaraguan
Red Cross (NRC) operations chief, Flavio Vanegas, arrived in
the Atlantic coastal town of Puerto Cabezas with a truckload
of supplies two days before Hurricane Felix made landfall early
Tuesday as a “category five,” the most violent level
storm.
Vanegas and a small group of NRC workers did the gruelling 10-hour
drive from the capital Managua, on the other side of the country,
as part of planned preparations for the hurricane season. Puerto
Cabezas is normally accessed by air due to dense jungle in the
eastern part of the country.
Speaking from the shattered port late Tuesday after Hurricane
Felix passed through the city, Vanegas said the Red Cross was
collaborating with the authorities to try to make an accurate
assessment of the damage.
“Most houses here have at least lost their roofs,”
Vanegas said “and fifteen per cent of the homes have been
completely destroyed.”
According to the Red Cross, at least three people have died,
including a child and nearly 5,000 families have been affected.
The mayor of Puerto Cabezas appealed for food aid to be sent
to the region for evacuees camping out in storm shelters. Schools
were still closed today as many were still in use as evacuation
shelters. Wells in some locations are contaminated with sea
water.
The NRC is now collecting food, bottled water and clothing after
appealing for help to the Nicaraguan public and opening two
special bank accounts. Red Cross rescuers and volunteers are
also busy with relief, first aid, comfort to the survivors and
coordination with authorities.
Latest reports say more than 12,000 people were successfully
evacuated before Hurricane Felix delivered a virtually direct
hit on Puerto Cabezas. The local Red Cross said some others
declined to leave their homes.
Awareness of the hurricane danger on Nicaragua’s Atlantic
coast and the vital importance of disaster preparedness has
heightened in recent years since it became the focus of pioneer
climate-change projects backed by the Netherlands Red Cross.
There is considerable nervousness in Central America and the
Caribbean about the effect climate change will have on the frequency
and severity of hurricanes, especially after the record-breaking
2005 season, which included Hurricane Katrina.
Hurricane Felix, which later tracked west into Honduras, will
also revive memories of Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Honduras and
Nicaragua were the nations most affected by Mitch – the
worst disaster in modern Latin American history.
The swampy Atlantic regions of Honduras and Nicaragua, which
together form the Miskito Coast, are acutely vulnerable to hurricanes.
Ramon Arnesto Sosa, the head of Nicaragua’s main disaster
agency, Monday told reporters in Managua that some 50,000 people
were particularly at risk because they lived beside rivers,
on hillsides or small islands.
After Hurricane Dean two weeks ago, Felix is the second category-five
storm in the region in less than a month, and the US National
Hurricane Centre said it was the first time two category fives
have made landfall in a single season since hurricane record-keeping
began in 1886. Felix, which weakened to category one as it moved
inland, has still triggered major alerts in all the countries
in its path, including in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa,
which was flattened by flash floods after
Hurricane Mitch nearly a decade ago.
The International Federation has released 200,000 Swiss francs
($166,000 USD/ €122,000) in emergency funds to assist Central
America’s National Societies meet immediate needs and
is also preparing a preliminary emergency appeal.
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Residents
walk past trees and lighting and communication poles felled
by Hurricane Felix in the streets of Puerto Cabezas, 4
September 2007. (REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas/courtesy www.alertnet.org)
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