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October 29, 2007 - Voting Ends For The First Round of The CNN Heroes Viewers' Choice Awards
Again, thank you to everyone that took time out of their busy schedules to support blueEnergy in the first round of voting of the CNN Heroes Viewers' Choice Awards. Voting closed at 12 noon EST today and blueEnergy was leading the second place candidate by over 4,000 votes. We are now awaiting an official tally from CNN.
The vote was a sprited competition and Mathias and blueEnergy would like to acknowledge fellow candidate Josh Sundquist and his organization LessThanFour.org for their impressive campaign and the work they do building an online, supportive community for amputees all around the world.
September 5, 2007 - Hurricane Felix Devastates NorthEast Nicaragua
From the news wire: "Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega traveled today to communities devastated by Hurricane Felix, which caused at least four deaths and left 35,000 severely affected as it hit the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN).
Ortega declared a state of emergency in the region yesterday after hearing a preliminary report. The extent of the damage will be ascertained as the affected areas are visited.
Felix hit the northeast region of the Central American country with winds of up to 260 kilometers per hour, making it a Category 5 hurricane, the most severe on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
The worst hit was Puerto Cabezas, an impoverished city of 40,000 where officials said 90 percent of infrastructure was wrecked. Debris of houses smashed up by the storm, downed power lines and uprooted trees littered the ground.
During his tour of the region along the Honduran border, the president was able to meet his counterpart in that neighboring country, Manuel Zelaya, who is expecting Felix to affect territories in that nation on Wednesday, now downgraded to tropical storm status.
The storm’s weakening does not, however, negate its danger. The intermittent rain that has been falling for many hours in northern Nicaragua is threatening the area with the possibility of floods and mudslides."
We were fortunate that the storm did not have a strong impact in the Southern Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAS) where we are located. We haven't received any reports of damage to any of our installations, but we haven't heard much yet, so we're keeping our ears to the ground. Our thoughts are with those in the Northern Region who suffered heavily from this storm. Puerto Cabezas is our most likely first expansion location on the Coast and they will now need energy and other basic infrastructure development more than ever.
September 4, 2007 - Hurricane Felix (Category 5) Slams Nicaragua
Yesterday’s report from the Central Florida Hurricane Center said: “Felix has kept the more west than north motion throughout the system's life, and is now approaching Nicaragua as a strong Category 4 system... much more than a coastal event, and has the potential for inland damage in the form of floods and mudslides along with wind damage.”
Today’s report reads, “...POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE FELIX MAKES LANDFALL IN EXTREME NORTHEASTERN NICARAGUA AT CATEGORY FIVE STRENGTH...
A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR NICARAGUA FROM PUERTO CABEZAS NORTHWARD TO THE HONDURAS/NICARAGUA BORDER...AND FOR HONDURAS FROM LIMON EASTWARD TO THE HONDURAS / NICARAGUA BORDER. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN COMPLETED.”
Felix is the second category 5 hurricane to make landfall in less than a month in Central America. This is the first time that two Category 5 hurricanes have made landfall in the same year. Prior to this year the last Category 5 hurricane to make landfall was hurricane Andrew.
blueEnergy is taking precautions to protect its personnel and installations. Two volunteers, have been evacuated from the coastal community of Set Net where they were doing maintenance on a new energy system installed there in May of this year. The team lowered the wind turbine tower prior to evacuating. Another blueEnergy team working in the community of Kakabila have lowered the turbine tower in that community as well. No damage is expected in Kakabila – the lowering was done as a precaution none-the-less.
Strong winds are not expected to reach Bluefields although we continue to be on the lookout.
We will continue to post updates on the storm on our website, in the Media -> Updates section.
Thank you to those that have inquired about our safety – your concern is most appreciated.
Sincerely,
Mathias Craig
Executive Director
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