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Felix wreaks havoc in Nicaragua's North Atlantic Region

On 4^th September at around 5 am, Hurricane Felix reached the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua as a rare and powerful ‘Category 5’ hurricane.  Crossing the coast at Sandy Bay, north of Puerto Cabezas, the hurricane left a trail of devastation in its wake as it moved inland across the north of the country.  Over a hundred died in the storm itself and more than 10,000 homes were destroyed.  As the Nicaraguan authorities assessed the damage, Nuevas Esperanzas offered assistance to meet urgent needs for water and sanitation.  The government’s disaster relief committee assigned Nuevas Esperanzas the task of addressing immediate needs in the municipality of Rosita in the Región Autónoma Atlántico Norte.  Nine days after the disaster struck, Arturo Juárez and Andrew Longley arrived in the region to assess the most urgent needs, working with local staff from the Ministry of Health.

"When we arrived in Rosita, part of what is known as the 'mining triangle' of Nicaragua because of its former gold mines, we were surprised to see that the town's infrastructure was largely undamaged by the storm.  Travelling east from Rosita, however, we entered the affected area suprisingly abruptly finding ourselves in what looked more like the aftermath of an atomic bomb than a hurricane.  The destruction to the previously dense forest was incredible.  Half the trees were uprooted leaving those still standing stripped of all their branches and leaves.  From the top of a hill we were able to see the destruction stretching as far as the horizon with nothing more than bare poles sticking out of the ground.  This area is not just forest, however, and is home to hundreds of small communities, some alongside roads, others several days trek into the jungle.  We were only able to reach the communities closest to the main road to Puerto Cabezas on our first day, as floodwaters had overtopped bridges leading northwards into the more remote areas. Flimsy wood and palm houses lay flattened, and even the best built houses were missing significant parts of their roofs.  Corrugated iron roofing sheets were scattered around the countryside, crumpled like waste paper. Wells and latrines in low-lying areas were inundated as children in bare feet waded through contaminated floodwaters.

"Today the waters receded enough for us to reach four communities that had previously been cut off by flooded bridges.  Most had lost their homes and in two communities we found hundreds of people crammed into recently built village schools, practically the only buildings to have survived intact.  It soon became clear that we should give these shelters the highest prioirty as concentrations of displaced people with no access to treated water and limited sanitation can soon provoke epidemics of life threatening diarrhoeal diseases.  We were able to chlorinate a few wells that had not filled up with contaminated floodwater, but it is clear that much more will need to be done to improve conditions for the people living in these shelters.  Thankfully some trucks arrived with food supplies from the World Food Programme and our Ministry of Health colleages were able to provide medical assistance.

"Tomorrow we will start work on treating water supplies for the shelters and next week we will bring materials from the Pacific side to build latrines.  With so many people living in these tiny schools, the existing latrines will fill up in no time.  We are coordinating closely with a water and sanitation team from Action Against Hunger who are working further to the east, covering the area around Sahsa in the municipality of Puerto Cabezas.  The scale of destruction is considerable, but it seems that help is arriving. Cooperation with other aid agencies and the government has been encouraging and we hope that together we can quickly bring appropriate help to the most vulnerable."

14/09/07