Nicaragua’s government decrees maximum alert for hurricane Julia

On October 9, Nicaragua’s government decreed a state of red alert, the highest on the risk scale, due to the damage caused by Hurricane Julia, whose rains caused floods and flash floods.

“A State of Red Alert is declared throughout the national territory. The declaration of the State of Yellow Alert decreed on October 8 is without effect,” reads the communiqué signed by Guillermo González, Minister of the National System for the Prevention, Mitigation, and Attention to Disasters (Sinapred).

The Administration of President Daniel Ortega also decreed the suspension of classes in public and private systems due to the risk of traveling on flooded highways and roads and the latent danger of landslides.

According to the Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies, several points in the country accumulated more than 100 millimeters of rain on Sunday, causing several rivers to overflow.

At the stroke of midday Sunday, the vice president of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, asked the population to be cautious, especially in rivers and ravines surroundings, prone to overflowing during the “winter”, as they call in Central America the rainy season.

Murillo informed that 600 shelters and 818 solidarity houses were ready to receive families in need of a safe shelter. Finally, 12,858 people accessed this protection.

With information from Sputnik