Transito Tellez, the mayor of the city of Leon, said that houses had been
knocked down by the wind and roads had been destroyed by flooding. He
added that electricity poles had been blown down and the city was without
light. The electricity outages meant that the water pumps for the
Departments of Leon and Chinandega were not able to function, leaving
those populations without water. Leon school teacher Socorro Alvarez
said, “It’s raining like we have never seen before.”
The three men identified as having been killed so far from the storm all
died after inadvertently touching live electric wires which had been
brought down by the high winds. Three more people are missing as well as
a fishing boat with an unknown number of crew people aboard.
Fisherman Erasmo Lopez brought his boat out of the water and put it beside his house, saying that “the wind was so strong that it blew sand from the beach against the houses and our faces where it scratched like sandpaper. The trees were moving like crazy, cars shook and you couldn’t look straight ahead.”
The System for Prevention, Attention and Mitigation of Disasters, SINAPRED, has maintained a yellow alert in all the departments of the Pacific Coast – Rivas, Carazo, Masaya, Granada, Managua, Leon and Chinandega. Relief organizations said that the part of the international highway between Leon and Chinandega is blocked with fallen light poles and wires. Two thousand people were evacuated from their homes in Chinandega. More than 1,000 people were reported in shelters in Leon and another 1,000 in Managua. Many Managua residents who live near the enormous storm sewers which carry rainwater from the Sierras de Managua down to Lake Managua and which flood regularly during a normal rainy season left their homes for safety. Bridges collapsed in Managua and Tipitapa. Authorities in the port city of Corinto evacuated 3,000 residents of neighborhoods along the shore because of fear of high surf.
The Nicaraguan Institute for Territorial Studies (INETER) issued a communiqué in which it warned that the “intense and prolonged rains” raised the danger of landslides from the water soaked flanks of the volcanoes which form a chain down the western plains of Nicaragua from the northern to the southern borders. Considered at risk of landslides were El Chonco, San Cristobal (the highest of the volcanoes), Casita, Telica, Momotombo (on the shores of Lake Managua/Xolotlan), Mombacho, Concepcion and Maderas, the last two on the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua/Cocibolca.
If you can make a contribution for storm victims (sadly only nine months after you responded generously to Hurricane Felix) we will send 100% of the money on to the official relief agency, SINAPRED. Make your check out to “Nicaragua Network-AGJ” writing Tropical Storm Alma in the memo line. Mail it to:
Nicaragua Network
1247 “E” Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
Or you can donate with a credit card at http://www.nicanet.org/?page_id=341. When you get to the
page, click on “other,” write in “Tropical Storm
Alma” and follow the instructions.
This hotline is prepared from Nicaraguan media sources. Nicanet can be reached by phone at 202-544-9355. Our web site is: www.nicanet.org. To subscribe to the Hotline, send an e-mail to nicanet@afgj.org
