Hurricane Felix

Just in case anyone out there is wondering, we are all fine.
Hurricane Felix struck the Northern part of Nicaragua at 5:30 yesterday morning, just North of Puerto Cabezas, then moved South, and as a consequence spent the entire day in Nicaraguan territory, before disintegrating itself and moving on to Honduras as a tropical storm.
The Northern RAAN region is struck pretty hard; the media reports indicate some 40.000 homeless and 38 dead. The RAAN region has been declared desasterzone and several villages have been flattened by the category 5 hurricane. Everybody is now anxious to see what the following days will bring in terms of rain. The current prognosis is some 300 mm of rain in Northern Nicaragua, and quite some more in Honduras and Guatemala.
Here in Managua we have felt very little. It started raining yesterday afternoon, and continued throughout the night with rain, thunder and lightning. It was not the usual kind of storm, the rain was soft, not violent, and the thunder was more prolonged, each blast seemed to come from afar and last longer than normally. Quite extraordinary, never experienced something quite like it.
As always, solidarity surprises in times of crisis, even in poor Nicaragua. Maybe because people are so very well aware that tomorrow they themselves could be in need of help because of an earthquake, volcano or another hurricane, recollections of food, water and money has already started. At schools and workplaces, people are busy organizing recollections for our “brethren in Puerto Cabezas”.
Let’s see how much is gathered. I will hand in my part, but I am pretty sure that it will mostly depend upon the Nicaraguans themselves, because international media is not likely to lend a helping hand. Who cares, anyway? It is just Nicaragua…
More on Felix (in Danish) on the MS website.

Posted by Christian Korsgaard