ReliefWeb

A. SITUATION ANALYSIS

Description of the disaster

On 4 October 2017, Tropical Depression Nate affected the Caribbean coast, leading the Nicaraguan government, through SINAPRED, to declare a yellow alert throughout the country. The storm caused heavy rain and floods mainly in the Northern Autonomous Caribbean Region and the Rivas, Jinotepe, Leon, Chinandega, Matagalpa and Juigalpa departments in the country’s central Pacific region. No major damages were reported in the Caribbean communities; however, the storm arrived immediately after two weeks of continuous rainfall, causing flooding in low-lying areas and landslides.

The Nicaraguan Red Cross activated its Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), and it prepared its staff at the national and branch levels; it also activated its Monitoring and Information Commission to track situation reports from the Pacific Region departments of Rivas, Carazo, León and Chinandega and in the central regions of Matagalpa and Juigalpa.

On 7 October 2017, SINAPRED reported that 16 people died, 682 affected communities in 14 departments, 5,952 damaged homes and 29,110 people were affected (6,848 families), of which 221 families were in collective centres.1 Twenty volunteers from the branch in Rivas, along with support from a volunteer from the headquarters, carried out damage and needs assessments in the communities of Ochomogo and Gil González (Rivas department); additionally, National Society personnel evacuated people from flooded homes and provided immediate assistance to the most affected. A water and sanitation team from the Nicaraguan Red Cross (NRC) was deployed, and conducted rapid assessments in health, water and sanitation, including chemical analysis of water sources and wells; approximately 432 families were affected, and 87 wells were flooded and contaminated in Rivas. NRC volunteers provided psychosocial support (PSS) and surveyed the families in the collective centres in the Ochomogo community, Belén municipality, Rivas department).

After Tropical Storm Nate passed, the Regional Committee for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Response for the North Caribbean (COREPRED for its acronym in Spanish) lifted the tropical storm alert, deactivated the collective centres and allowed people to return to their homes.