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Extent of Felix's Devastation Still Unfolding C$20 www.nicatimes.net Friday, September 14, 2007 – Granada, Nicaragua An 8-Page Publication of The Tico Times Extent of Felix’s Devastation Still Unfolding By Tim Rogers and Brian Harris date: 67 dead; 138 missing; 135 rescued and The Nica Times 150,542 affected. Though prospects are dimming that those BILWI – As the country completed three still missing will turn up safe or be rescued, days of national mourning this week in obser- some incredible tales of survival have started vance of those killed by last week’s Hurricane to emerge from the wreckage, including the Felix, rescue workers on the Caribbean coast story of one woman who gave birth as the continued the tireless and grim work of air- hurricane ripped by overhead and destroyed lifting emergency supplies to isolated indige- her home. nous communities and trying to accurately Nicaraguan naval patrols, meanwhile, assess damage and death tolls. pulled 41 people from the Caribbean waters As the scope of the devastating tragedy Sept. 7, four full days after the storm swept continues to unfold, several rescue workers them into the water. The 40 men and one and outside observers compared the natural woman survived by tying themselves to disaster to the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, which pieces of wood from destroyed homes and devastated the U.S. city of New Orleans and ships they found in the water. much of the U.S. Gulf Coast. Showing signs of trauma and exhaustion “For us this is an invisible Katrina,” said from the ordeal, the group, mostly lobster Alejandro López, a United Nations represen- divers, was met by a large crowd of townsfolk tative of the World Food Programme in the in Bilwi, many showing up in hopes that rel- northern hamlet of Kurkira. atives would be on the boat. Sadly, most As with Hurricane Katrina, not only was went away with that wish unsatisfied and the scope of the destruction nearly total in realizing the chances of finding their loved many communities – with 80-90% of the ones alive was practically nil. population left homeless – but the govern- The same patrol boat that brought the ment’s reaction to the hurricane, both before group to shore also buried nine unidentified and after it struck, has been sharply criti- drowning victims on an offshore key before cized as inadequate and untimely. returning to patrols. A second rescue effort Insufficient evacuations and storm pre- the following day found only the bodies of paredness, and spotty information on post- two more victims floating in the water, and disaster damage assessment, had the media two additional bodies were found floating in and other organizations guessing about how the ocean on Monday. many people had died or were left homeless In neighboring Honduras, meanwhile, by the category-5 storm. reports came in over the weekend of dead While the opposition daily La Prensa led bodies washing ashore there. with a Sept. 8 headline claiming “at least 170 In Bilwi and in some of the outlying com- dead,” rival daily El Nuevo Diario that day munities, the sound of hammering filled the claimed a more modest 52 confirmed deaths. town over the weekend as some residents On the Internet, reports from other publica- started to rebuild the wood structures that tions that day claimed anywhere from 30 to had been lost to the storm, while grumbling 160 dead in Nicaragua, with anywhere from that the price of nails had tripled due to the 30,000-150,000 affected. spike in demand. The chaotic numbers game led the gov- However, farther north in the Miskito ernment to release an urgent communiqué community of Kurkira, which bore the full Sept. 8, claiming that only the Nicaraguan brunt of the storm, fewer buildings were left Army is authorized to issue any statistics, standing than were felled. One church, including official body count numbers. ripped clean of its roof, had its altar and In a somber Sunday evening address, neatly lined pews exposed naked to the sky. Antonio Aragón | EFE President Daniel Ortega, who had traveled out Some nearby homes had their four walls to the Caribbean region earlier in the week to flattened to the ground, each wall facing a Relief Aid: Miskito residents in the devastated community of Dakura receive witness the damage firsthand, tried to reassert different direction. hurricane relief aid Saturday from a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter that finally his command over the situation by having his Kurkira resident Benito Flores said that reached the isolated village four days after it was leveled by Hurricane Felix. military brass offer the official numbers to Page 2 Citizen Councils Suffer Defeat in National Assembly By Sam Jacoby and Tim Rogers Sandinista Renovation Movement (MRS) the FSLN (Sandinista Front) lawmakers,” citizen councils are grassroots efforts that Nica Times Staff voted together to undermine President said veteran political analyst Alejandro have every right to organize and exist under Daniel Ortega’s plans to implement a new Serrano, noting that the formation of the cit- the Constitution. Critics, however, argue that The rise to power of the Ortega adminis- form of grassroots “direct democracy” in the izen councils has been a cornerstone of the a Law of Citizen Participation already creates tration’s polemic Councils of Citizen Power form of citizen councils, which have already Ortega administration. “This was the first Page 2 (CPC) appears to have been severely ham- been created in thousands of neighborhoods time the opposition parties have united and pered by a legal reform to sever the groups’ throughout the country. the first time Ortega has lost a vote in the government ties, reducing them to party The reform to Article 11 of Law 290 states National Assembly.” organizations without any official authority that the citizen councils are strictly civil The Sandinista Front is expected to chal- CENTRAL AMERICAÕS LEADING ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER or function. organizations that are free to organize but lenge the law as unconstitutional before the In a rare show of unity among opposition cannot carryout any official state function, Supreme Court, in which Ortega wields political forces, 51 lawmakers from the such as making government policies or dis- enormous influence. Or, President Ortega Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC), the tributing state goods. himself could veto the law. Inside Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) and the “This is a political defeat for Ortega and Sandinista leadership maintains that the 2 | NEWS | THE NICA TIMES – September 14, 2007 Hurricane Survivors Slowly Start to Rebuild Page 1 zone. A truckload of supplies from the Costa Rican Red Cross arrived in Managua, and his house had been totally destroyed and that Spain donated relief materials. Oxfam the town’s water supply was cut off. International announced it would attend to Although the first U.S. Navy Blackhawk heli- 30,000 affected residents and the United copter to reach the area Saturday brought a Nations and European Union were deciding load of much-needed tents and blankets, how much to give at press time. townsfolk said they were short of water. First Lady and official government spokes- The U.S. aid so far has totaled $1 million, woman Rosario Murillo was in the affected including eight helicopters for relief and res- region Sept. 7 and assured people that the cue missions. government simultaneous to the rescue work The disaster made the airstrip at Puerto was already planning how to rebuild. To fund Cabezas a multinational bevy of activity air- those efforts, the government this week lifting supplies to affected towns and hamlets. asked the National Assembly to authorize Helicopters from the U.S.S. Wasp, which $10.7 million for immediate relief. abandoned exercises off the coast of Panama “We can’t talk only of returning to the to aid the relief effort, landed alongside a normalcy that you had, because it was a nor- Venezuelan Air Force C-130 Hercules that fer- malcy of injustice and poverty,” Murillo told ried donations from Managua to the region. the devastated Miskito community of The Nicaragua Army’s Soviet-era Antonov A- Dakura during a Sept. 7 visit. “We have to 26 cargo planes and U.S. Chinnok helicopters, propose, as we have done in all of Nicaragua, along with a Ukrainian-registered Antonov A- a development with prosperity, wellbeing 12 chartered for the effort by United Nations’ and in accordance to the cultures and tradi- charities also joined in the effort. tions.” In Managua, an Airbus 319 filled with Antonio Aragon | EFE emergency supplies donated by the Canadian Freelance correspondent Brian Harris Rebuilding: A Miskito resident of the community Dakura recycles nails from the government arrived Sept. 7 and Cuban doc- reported from Bilwi and Nica Times editor hurricane wreckage to start the long processes of rebuilding. tors were also reportedly deployed in the Tim Rogers reported from Managua. Opposition Group Marches in Protest of Citizen Councils Page 1 “We need to create jobs,” he said. “We need investment to do that. The Sandinistas haven’t a legal framework for such organizations, done anything for the people, for the poor.” and that the newly created citizen councils are really Sandinista party organizations Fear of the Past intended to hijack civil society and under- mine other forms of citizen participation Many of the marchers appeared to repre- and local authority (NT, Aug. 17). sent the interests of more well-to-do Congressman Victor Hugo Tinoco, of the Nicaraguans. The specter of the 1980s, when opposition MRS, said the Sept. 6 vote in the many of the country’s wealthy lost property National Assembly does not mean the citizen to Sandinista seizures, loomed large over the councils can’t continue to organize and exist; proceedings.
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