Fourteen days of continuing rain have created a slow catastrophe in the western part of Nicaragua, and caused the government to declare it a disaster area. By October 21, 20.000 people have fled their homes in the western and eastern part of Nicaragua because of floods, and harvests from around 100.000 ha farmland have been lost.
In the city of Matagalpa the river went over it’s banks and swept away several barrios. 5 people are reported dead, and 6 are missing.
The UN food and agriculture organisation (FAO) warns of possible food shortages in a couple of months because of the lost harvest. The director for the disaster and rescue service in Nicaragua says that between October 6 and 14 the towns of Leon and Chinandega received 162 mm rain per day. That is more rain than during the Mitch-disaster in 1998, which avaraged 130 mm per day.
The rain is the product of a number of slowly moving tropical low pressure fronts coming from the Pacific Ocean, passing the country ione after another. The weather service expects at least one more week of rain.
So if it isn´t one thing, it´s another.
El chele 