ReliefWeb

A. Situation Analysis

Description of the disaster

On 4 October 2017, SINAPRED declared a yellow alert for all the country due to the potential impact of Tropical Storm Nate (Tropical Depression 16 at that time). It was forecasted to affect the Caribbean Coast 5 October 2017, with rains and intense winds. No major damages were reported in the Caribbean communities. However, rainfall affected other regions in the country since the weather system described as an intertropical convergence zone, was very disorganized producing heavy precipitation in almost all the departments in Nicaragua.

On 7 October, SINAPRED reported that the following 16 departments were affected by floods and heavy winds: Rivas, Chontales, Madriz, Boaco, Rio San Juan, Nueva Segovia, Estelí, Carazo, Managua, Masaya, Granada, Chinandega, León, Matagalpa, Jinotega and the Autonomous regions of the North Caribbean Coast and the South Caribbean Coast. A total of 87 municipalities were affected, with 7,840 families affected (270 families in collective centres), 5,900 affected homes (211 damaged, 32 destroyed and 27 at risk of collapsing) and 15 people were reported dead.

The storm brought heavy rain, which caused flooding mainly in the North Caribbean Coast and the central departments of Rivas, Jinotepe, León, Chinandega, Matagalpa and Juigalpa; moreover, the storm arrived after two weeks of continuous rainfall, which had already saturated the soils and flooded lower grounds, thus producing landslides.

Approximately 120km of bridges, highways, roads and sewer systems were affected in the departments of Madriz, Estelí, Nueva Segovia, Leon, Chinandega, Masaya, Carazo, Rivas, Boaco, Chontales, Matagalpa and Jinotega, as reported by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.

Thousands of people are without running water, but the repairs of water pipes and aqueducts have started. The National Electric Company has 96 teams working on reestablishing electrical power nationwide and repairing wells in Carazo, Masaya, Granada and Rivas.