Casa Baltimore/Limay

Today the municipal authorities of San Juan de Limay declared a municipal red alert, because the damage caused by rains overcame their ability to manage. This municipality reports various flooded neighborhoods, besides finding itself incommunicado from the rise of two rivers which prevent passage on the main highway connecting it with Esteli, the departmental capital.

In spite of the fact that the number of displaced persons decreased from 222 to 63, the mayor’s office of San Juan de Limay lost economic and logistical control of the situation, and therefore felt obliged to declare the red alert.

Colonel Mario Perezcasser, head of Civil Defense, announced that the mayor’s offices of Somotillo and Chinandega are also studying the possibility of raising their state of alert from green to red, because of the many damages reported from precipitation.

In Somotillo there are 330 persons in two temporary shelters. In El Realejo there are 225 displaced persons, and in Managua 150 persons needed to be evacuated from the Manchester neighborhood.

ROADS CUT OFF

Perezcassar said that up until 11 a.m. there were 785 displaced persons taking refuge in eight temporary shelters.

Besides this, damaged roads were also reported. In Leon [department] there are eight incommunicado population areas. The highway that links Leon with Poneloya is impassable. Other cut-off roads are La Dalia-Waslala, Waslala-Siuna, Siuna-Rosita and Rosita-Bilwi.

The Civil Defense head believes that the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure will need twice the 100 million cordobas that it had requested, in order to repair the damage caused by the rains of September and October.

The green alert is being maintained across the country. Tropical Depression 16 was lowered to a low pressure center, but in the west [of Nicaragua] it has allowed an entire week’s worth of rain to fall in one day.

Translaton by Barbara Larcom

Hello, Barbara!

Well, what can I tell you? The rains have been constant, until today when no rain fell. But according to information on TV, a storm is approaching from the Pacific with hurricane predictions, which will affect the countries of El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, according to experts.

In our case, if this phenomenon occurs, it would affect a large part of the western part of the country, specifically Chinandega and Leon, and if so, we would find ourselves involved as that zone is a neighbor to us and it always falls on us when it affects that zone.

In truth, we are almost incommunicado. The river is passing across the Gualilica bridge, that is, the entrance to the municipality. The Los Quesos River that passes through La Naranja can’t be crossed, and the bus from San Francisco [Norte] isn’t coming. More than that, the Mosquito stream, that is at the exit from Limay in the same direction, damaged the bridge, and it’s not known when it will be repaired.

There’s a lot of concern, according to what they told me this morning, that the Health Department is holding meetings with different sectors that work in the locality, in order to take measures, now that cases of leptospirosis are suspected in some communities, and they want to prepare against a situation of epidemic which could occur.

For the moment the harvests of basic grains have not been lost, but if the rains persist, it is probable that they will be. Anyway, we’ll keep in touch.