Condega is a rural town of 30,000 people in the northwestern region of Nicaragua where I lived and worked for five weeks. Hurricane Mitch tore through this community with such fury that nearly 15,000 people were left without homes, either temporarily or permanently. On October twenty-eighth, I was awakened by the incessant church bells ringing throughout the town and a frantic commotion in my house. There was a knock at my door, "Wake up, the river has overflown." Still unsure of the situation, I walked around the corner with my family. The streets were beginning to flood and the houses were quickly filling up with water. People were crowded around, frightened, and yet totally unaware of what more was to come.
Throughout the morning, radio communications warned that the hurricane was increasing in strength and the river was growing and pouring into the streets. In an effort to evacuate all families, I walked along the disappearing riverbank with members of the emergency committee. The women who formed the emergency committee were direct with the residents, pleading with them to gather only their most essential belongings and evacuate their houses immediately. Those who refused would surely lose their lives.
By afternoon, families and community members were filling schools and town buildings, which served as makeshift refuges. Others sought shelter in the houses of friends and family that lived at higher altitudes.
By the next day, each house along the river had flooded or had been carried away by the raging waters. Houses throughout the town were collapsing because their bamboo roofs could not stand the persistent heavy rain.
During the hurricane I worked with the emergency committee in their headquarters at the Casa Cultural. As well as unpacking and provisioning food and clothing donated from members of the community, we documented the damage and talked directly to families. Many of the emergency committee women were also staying in refuges or taking shelter with family. Every morning and afternoon I asked them how their houses were doing. They did not sleep at night because their own homes were vanishing one by one and the food supply was diminishing. Despite this, they carried themselves strong and were amazingly organized.
The Casa Cultural was flooded with people coming in asking for food and clothing. Parents were crying with frustration and hunger. Barefoot children with torn clothing looked confused. Everyone was frantic. The damages and suffering were all recorded; every destroyed house, every child without milk or with diarrhea was accounted for. Three children and one adult died within the first two days and another child later died due to lack of medical attention. It is probable that many more people would have died if the evacuation process had not been so well organized.
In the midst of these tragedies, I saw people trying to salvage what remained, shoveling five foot deep mud out of their humble houses, that were missing walls and roofs. While leaving Condega, I passed the Casa Cultural and saw the women of the emergency committee. Some were busy compiling information while others counseled families and provisioned out the little food that remained. As I walked past them and watched them work, I was overwhelmed by their spirit and strength. Their relentless dedication to one another has inspired me to use all my capabilities to support their efforts.
-Lucinda Grinnell,
Jamestown, Rhode Island
Last updated: Wednesday, 12-Jan-2000 21:27:59 EST
<homemakers@homemakers.org>