More than 100 missing in Nicaragua after hurricane Felix

Managua_(dpa) _ Nicaraguan authorities continued to search Friday for more than 100 indigenous people of the Miskito community who went missing in the wake of hurricane Felix.

The first official casualty figure released late Thursday spoke of 39 people dead and some 60,000 people who lost their property, although other sources noted that scores more may have died since many areas affected by the hurricane have not yet been inspected.

Earlier reports on Thursday put the death toll at 46.

"Incalculable disaster," the daily La Prensa said Friday.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said in a press conference Thursday that damage to agriculture and to the environment is huge, and noted that the country had so far received half a million dollars in international aid.

"The situation is very complex. There are 49 affected communities, and a large amount that we have not got to yet," Ortega warned.

Felix struck Nicaragua's poor north-east on Tuesday as a category five hurricane, with sustained winds of up to 260 kilometres an hour. It devastated entire Miskito communities and the city of Puerto Cabezas, with 60,000 residents, 580 kilometres north of the capital Managua.

The latest Civil Defence count reported damages to 8,648 homes, 7,995 of which were totally destroyed; 13 public buildings, including schools, health centres and a military post; and 30 private buildings, most of them schools.

Close to 60,000 people are homeless, and 18,477 of them have found refuge in 101 shelters.

Ortega noted that "forests and palm tree plantations have disappeared," further leaving locals without a key basic foodstuff, coconuts.

He said the government will plant news trees and will grant seeds and domestic animals to 10,000 families through the "Zero Hunger" programme, with an investment of 3.3 million dollars.

Ortega also said the government will send locals materials to rebuild the roofs of over 8,000 homes, at an estimated cost of 5.8 million dollars. dpa ve vs pr