Nicaragua storm death toll rises (reports of bodies floating in water)

[uppityperson]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6980859.stm

The death toll from Hurricane Felix has risen to at least 38 people, with more than 200 missing, authorities in Nicaragua have said. The storm hit land in north-east Nicaragua on Tuesday as a maximum strength category-five hurricane before dissipating to a tropical depression. Felix destroyed thousands of flimsy homes on the Central American country's low-lying Caribbean coast.

(clip)
Up to 9,000 homes, many of them built of wood and tin, were destroyed and as many as 50,000 people were displaced by the hurricane. The storm also struck Honduras, where up to 20,000 people were evacuated from coastal areas. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said on a visit to the devastated coastal city of Puerto Cabezas: "There are more than 200 people missing. We are talking about really serious damage."

Reynaldo Francis, governor of Nicaragua's impoverished North Atlantic Autonomous Region, which was worst hit by the hurricane, said the death toll was expected to rise. "We are getting information of bodies floating in the water," he said....(more)

[malaise]

1. How sad is this

Damn. I couldn't believe they didn't set up shelters inland before the hurricane hit.

[Warpy]

2. People were sheltering in schools

and churches, but they're not built much better. The walls stayed up, but the roofs flew off.

The area is largely swampy and sparsely populated by indigenous people. There was no real way to warn the whole coast and no real way to get them all to safety. Travel is by small boat.

Some of the first person accounts at the BBC were pretty harrowing.

[uppityperson]

3. kick for more coverage

[tom_paine]

4. What, they aren't even suppressing the missing /dead numbers?

How backwards and unlike Imperial Amerika, which suppressed and disappeared 3,400 dead African-Americans to ensure the death toll from Katrina was "lower" than 9/11's death toll.

Once again, it's Mission Accomplished for the Bushies. Those 3,400 poor blacks, disappeared without a trace, known only to their families...

[knitter4democracy]

5. I should e-mail my old prof.

She grew up in Nicaragua, and she's probably frantic. I hope the families I stayed with when I was there in 1994 are okay. My prof should know.

[Solly Mack]

6. :(