Details of Payment 

Emergency: Hurricane Felix 

Date of Emergency: 4 September 2007

Implementing Partners:
Christian Medical Action (Acción Médica Cristiana - AMC)
The Nicaraguan Lutheran Church of Faith and Hope (Iglesia Luterana de Nicaragua “Fé y Esperanza” - ILFE)

Details of the Emergency:

Hurricane Felix, Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, hit the North Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua on Tuesday, 4 September at 4:45 am in Barra Sandy Bay, and later reached the town of Waspam and the shore of the Coco River. The areas most affected were Bilwi (Puerto Cabezas), Waspam, and Tasba Pri; in each of these areas, almost all of the houses (made mostly of wood) were completely destroyed. Deaths, injuries, missing persons, and severe damages to both local agriculture and farm animals (cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, etc) have been reported. The President of Nicaragua declared a State of Emergency in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua, on the same day. The magnitude of the needs is not yet fully known.

Coordination is made under the leadership of SINAPRED (Sistema Nacional para la Prevención, Mitigación y Atención de Desastres). But a coordination mechanism needs to be established to provide assistance to the affected locations. 

Proposed Assistance:

The current rapid response aims at distributing food and non food items as well as carrying out further needs assessment to prepare for the recovery of basic infrastructure in the affected communities. 

Beneficiary information and geographical areas of response:

The intervention will target the commune of Sahsa for two reasons: first, because Sahsa is one of the most affected communes; second, because ACT member Acción Médica Cristiana already has a presence there. Sahsa is located in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region of Nicaragua, 460 kilometers from Managua and 95 kilometers from Bilwi. It is the capital of the Tasba Pri territory and has 1710 inhabitants, of which 70% are mestizo and 30% indigenous Miskito. About 70% of the population is below 15 years old. A total of 379 families have been affected (1368 people: 753 female and 615 male).

ACT member Accion Medica Cristiana will undertake the following actions:

• Provide food to 319 affected families.
• Provide materials for roof repairs for the houses that were destroyed. Work groups will be formed to repair the roofs of 210 homes, or 70% of the total number affected.
• Damage assessment and analysis of needs in the Tasba Pri territory, which includes about 41 communities (including Sahsa) with a total population of 18,215 people.

To coordinate these three components, a local committee comprised of health workers, religious leaders, local government officials, and other agencies in the area will be formed. The prioritization of activities will be determined jointly with this local committee.

Period of execution:

3 months: from 15 September to 15 December 2007. ACT members are formulating an appeal to be presented within the next two weeks.

Because of the limited amount available through the RRF, ACT Nicaragua Forum members have agreed that AMC would be the only ACT member benefiting from this request. AMC will therefore be responsible for the implementation and reporting according to the ACT guidelines. However, ILFE, as present coordinator of the ACT Nicaragua Forum, will provide additional organizational support and regular monitoring to AMC intervention.

BUDGET