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.