A letter from Carlos Cardenas Martinez in Nicaragua
September 2012
CHALLENGED BY COMPLEX EMERGENCIES, NICARAGUA AFFRONTED SUCCESFULY MULTIPLE THREATS...
I called on the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. The Lord is on my side, I will not fear. What can man do to me? (Psalm 118:5, 6).
Sisters and Brothers:
I greet you all by means of this missionary letter, hoping you are being blessed by the almighty and omnipresent Creator.
I am delighted to share a short but significant experience in the work of accompaniment of hundreds of evacuated communities and families under threats of volcano eruption and recurrent quakes in the western region of Nicaragua.
San Cristóbal Volcano
Just a week after the end of our ecumenical regional consultation on the future of Action By Churches Together, ACT Alliance—a church-based global coalition working in development, advocacy and disaster response—we, ACT members in Nicaragua, according to our contingency plan, without a single call, met at the Inter Church Center for Theological and Social Studies, CIEETS. The main point to discuss was the complex emergency scenario growing fast in the midst of the hurricane season in Central America.
I remember that we barely could get back to our homes to say hello and then to the offices, where we had a pile of messages and reports calling us to join the official response alerts. It made us put into practice the recent updated guidelines on emergency procedures and recommendations on safety and security in complex emergencies.
San Cristóbal Volcano
This time we got one of those complex situations impossible to be figured out as a case study in classroom scenarios. When blind forces of nature combined with common vulnerabilities threaten lives and means of subsistence of those most disadvantaged, we church helpers and families expect the worst from such a situation: First, Hurricane Ernest coming from the Caribbean Sea causing heavy rains and floods; second, a 7.6 Richter scale earthquake with epicenter in Costa Rica on Wednesday, September 5, triggering a tsunami alert and generating a myriad of strong tremblings; and later on the eruption of Volcano San Cristobal in Chinandega.
Immediately the Nicaraguan System for Disaster Prevention SINAPRED and the Civil Defense activated their local networks alongside the Pacific Coast, concerning the tsunami threat, and the community networks close to the active Volcanoes San Cristobal and Telica.
San Cristóbal Volcano
In this scenario what are we (churches) going to do? First at all, we have to send information and alert notes to our ACT Alliance network secretariat in Geneva while our members connect with first responders at the ground level to receive updated information on the identified needs to prevent damage and protect lives and then to have an idea of our possible response.
This is one of the greatest added values of being part of this Alliance: being able to plan and act together, assuming coordination and articulation of actions not as a mere administrative function but as a shared responsibility before, during and after emergencies. We call it “disaster risk reduction approach.”
This time as a PDA representative I received an assignment: to ride over to a group of communities and have a first-sight idea of the evacuation process in the Volcano San Cristobal slopes.
People used to ask us, what do we do when there are no emergency situations? Often we respond that extreme poverty and its consequences nurture a pre-crisis scenario to which we address our disaster preparedness efforts before a disaster strikes a zone or group of communities. This time, most threatened communities were those in which our partners CEPAD, CIEETS and LWF have development and advocacy work in Chinandega.
I spent a couple of days visiting several communities through dusty, stony and narrow rural paths trying to find out to where so many people had been evacuated. How people are coping with this situation, compelled to leave homes and scarce humble belongings abandoned. This was the fourth day after the first three explosions of the volcano that elevated a 5 kmts cloud of smog and sand to the heavens during four days.
San Cristóbal Volcano
In ACT Alliance everybody knows that it is impossible to have enough safe shelter and first aid means for a massive evacuation. This was a serious concern of our colleagues in ACT. Most of the families were sheltered in schools and churches.
By the road, before entering a stony and muddy path, I stopped a truck showing a ride signal made by a couple, Herminio Linares and his wife Geronima. Breaking the rules of security, I agreed to take them in the same direction I was driving through. As I was told, they heard the news from a local broadcasting station and were visibly worried about their parents living in La Bolsa, a parish close to the slopes of San Cristobal Volcano. They came as personal first aid responders.
Their faces instantly shone—they were surprised when I mentioned Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and our involvement in disasters. At same time with gratitude they introduced themselves, while carrying on their backs heavy sacks with food and grain gathered from relatives in Managua.
We reached Belen parish, right where at the Public Primary School Herminio hoped to meet their relatives; we say good-bye and promised each other to meet again.
Here I got information from the local Emergency Committee coordinator Mr. Indalecio Pastora Lopez, based at Belen Public School: 12 communities close to the slopes were evacuated by themselves, and another 45 including 1,300 families are moving back to their homes as the green alert was changed to yellow. Advice was gived on the potential damage of the acid rain to the peanut crops, farm animals and human health. I couldn't keep driving ahead because roads were closed due to potential lava slides. This is good information to share with our Emergency Operations Center COE in Managua. I am happy to confirm that hazardous threats are now reduced and we can keep monitoring earthquake alerts and suspend our emergency sessions.
I appreciate your support and heartfelt messages and prayers for those in suffering during these harsh days in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
God is at our side, we will not fear…,
Carlos Cardenas M
PCUSA Mission Co-worker at Nicaraguan Council of Evangelical Churches (CEPAD)
Managua, Nicaragua,
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) representative for Latin America & Caribbean Region
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 11
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