HURRICANE FELIX CLAIMS 5 ADVENTISTS

Nicaragua: Hurricane Felix Claims Five Adventist Lives, Church Assesses Damage

September 10, 2007 Managua, NIcaragua .... [Libna Stevens/IAD/ANN]

A house in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, damaged by Hurricane Felix last week. The category 5 storm hit the northern Atlantic region of Nicaragua September 4, leaving thousands homeless. [photos: courtesy ADRA Nicaragua] An ADRA emergency rescue worker assists a boy in Puerto Cabezas, where hundreds sought shelter in the city's Adventist school during the hurricane.

Seventh-day Adventist leaders in Nicaragua are concerned for the thousands of church members affected by Hurricane Felix, the Category 5 storm that hit the Central American country early on September 4.

Felix swept away entire communities in Nicaragua's northern region some 370 miles from the capital city of Managua with its high winds and torrential rain where more than 5,000 members reside.

The death toll is surpassing 100, and so far five church members are reported dead. However, some members are still unaccounted for in the Miskito Keys, which suffered Felix's fiercest winds, clocked at 160 mph.

"We still haven't been able to ensure the condition of our members who have survived the hurricane," said Juan Angel Guevara, president of the church in Nicaragua. "The total infrastructure of the church has been affected in the north Atlantic region."

Guevara, who has only been able to communicate through radio with a few of the communities in the affected regions, said two churches supported by wooden stilts were destroyed and another 45 churches were damaged in areas where rivers regularly overflow each year.

Guevara said he has not been able to contact a church-operated radio station and clinic located near the country's eastern border with Honduras.

The Adventist elementary and secondary school in Puerto Cabezas, where over 700 people from the area sought shelter, lost the roofs on each of its classrooms.

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency in Nicaragua and its Emergency and Rescue response team have delivered more than 1,000 pounds of first aid kits to the areas first surveyed by Nicaragua's Civil Defense Army, according to ADRA officials in the country. In addition, food and tarps are being delivered.

"Our greatest challenge is that we are working as fast as we can while depending on the limited number of choppers available for delivering supplies in the flooded tropical jungle-ridden region," said Plinio Vergara, ADRA Nicaragua director.

Wally Amundson, ADRA director for the church's Inter-America region, said funds have already been released to help hurricane victims.

Church leaders and members throughout the unaffected areas of Nicaragua are actively collecting donations in their local churches to assist hurricane victims, according to Guevara. In the capital city of Managua, the church has organized a donation center at the church headquarters office through appeals to the public via radio, and has teamed up with the Red Cross where dozens of have participated in a blood drive.

More than 87,000 Adventists live in Nicaragua and attend 186 organized churches.

Source: http://news.adventist.org/data/2007/08/1189458048/index.html.en