CRS Responds: Nicaragua, El Salvador Devestated by Hurricane

November 10, 2009 - 9:33 PST

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY

Contact: Sara Fajardo
Communications Officer, Latin America/Caribbean
410-951-7341 (office)
831-210-2515 (cell)
sfajardo@crs.org

NICARAGUA, EL SALVADOR DEVESTATED BY HURRICANE

Baltimore, MD (November 10, 2009) - Hurricane Ida roared through Central America leaving over a 130 dead and thousands displaced in Nicaragua and El Salvador. The category 1 hurricane touched down in Nicaragua on Thursday, November 5, and was later downgraded to a tropical storm. Already reeling from flooding two months prior, the five-day onslaught of rain caused the Coco and Sisin Rivers to burst their banks and inundate the surrounding communities. Homes built on mountainsides and precipices were swept away by mudslides.

Aid efforts in Nicaragua are hindered by the difficulty in accessing the most impacted areas. Bridges and roads have been washed away, the ferry is not functioning, and only small passenger planes are piloted into this remote area of the country. The Nicaraguan government estimates that there are 8,000 people displaced by Ida, around 530 damaged homes and 200 contaminated water sources. Catholic Relief Services is coordinating with the government and the U.N. for the delivery of food and other items to 3,000 people. The contaminated water sources are of particular concern as this can have a detrimental impact on the overall health of each community and particularly on children and the elderly who are the most susceptible to waterborne disease. CRS is providing plastic Jerry cans and chlorine for 1,000 families to help purify their water supply.

CRS was already responding to a previous natural disaster with a $75,000 emergency agricultural recovery project that included livestock and assistance in replanting bean and corn crops in the Mosquito Coast area along the Nicaraguan border with Honduras. The region was struggling to recover from a total crop loss resulting from a Tropical depression in Mid-August. Flooding earlier this year decimated bean and maize fields, and the region populated by the Miskito people, had their newly replanted crops swept away again by the rising waters and heavy rains. Long-term recovery in the region will depend not only on providing food staples and supplies in the near future, but also on assisting Miskito communities with replanting crops before the end of the rainy season.

"We have to think beyond the immediate needs and look at how this storm is going to affect the region a couple of months from now," says Hugh Aprile, CRS Country Representative in Nicaragua, " In order to mitigate a future food shortage we need to replant as soon as the floodwaters subside. This will help to ensure self-sufficiency and provide the staple bean and corn crops to sustain their families through the dry season, if we don't respond immediately these communities will go for a long time without being able to produce their own food and will have rely more heavily on outside aide."

A low-pressure system drawn in from the pacific by Hurricane Ida pummeled El Salvador with rains so heavy they rivaled the intensity of Hurricane Mitch over 10 years ago. The Salvadoran National Weather Service (El Servicio Nacional de Estudios Territoriales) reports that 355 mm (14 inches) of rain, pelted the area surrounding the San Vicente volcano in only four hours. The communities of Verapaz and Tepetitan were partially buried by a downpour of mud that swept the sides of the volcano as a result of the rainstorm. The Salvadoran government has declared a state of emergency and wide-scale relief efforts have been put in place. Over 130 have been reported dead and 13,680 in shelters.

CRS is working with our partner Caritas San Vicente to help meet the needs of the affected community. "The Salvadoran government is well equipped to provide immediate shelter and food," says Gleeson, "but the long term needs will become more apparent one or two weeks from now when people go back to their communities and there is three feet of mud in their rooms or a boulder has landed on their homes--it's going to require sustained relief effort to get their lives back in order after the emergency abates."

How to Help:
Donate via phone: 1-877-HELP-CRS
Donate online: www.crs.org
Write a check: Catholic Relief Services
P.O. Box 17090
Baltimore, Maryland 21203-7090

Catholic Relief Services is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency provides assistance to people in more than 100 countries and territories based on need, regardless of race, nationality or creed. For more information, please visitwww.crs.org or www.crsespanol.org.

Contact

Catholic Relief Services
www.crs.org
MD, 21201 US
Sara Fajardo - Communications Officer, 410 951-7341

Keywords

Hurricane IDA

Category

US Archdiocese & Diocese

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