Stalled Hurricane Aid Gets a Boost

Nicaraguan diplomats in Los Angeles overcame a major hurdle Saturday in their efforts to send 675 tons of badly needed provisions to hundreds of thousands of Hurricane Mitch victims.

The supplies--food, medicine and other essentials--had been collected by the Nicaraguan Consulate but had been piling up in Los Angeles warehouses because there was no money to ship them.

However, after a report in The Times on Friday detailing how the aid was wasting away, an outpouring of volunteers, pledges of assistance and money kick-started the efforts Saturday. The help included a $20,000 donation from an Orange County community group.

“It makes me feel great that I got such a response from the community,” said Silvio Mendez, Nicaraguan consul in Los Angeles. “It is wonderful.”

Mendez and several dozen volunteers were hustling to package the supplies at a North Hollywood warehouse, where most of the items had been stored. Mendez had been facing a deadline of midnight Saturday, when the lease expired for that building and two others where the items were housed. But after hearing of his plight, the owner of the warehouses extended the contract until Tuesday.

The Oct. 28 hurricane racked much of Central America. But Nicaragua, already one of the poorest countries in the region, was among the areas hardest hit by the massive storm. More than 1 million Nicaraguans were displaced by Mitch, and the farming industry suffered a $1.5-billion loss.

In Los Angeles, home to the largest Central American population in the nation, contributions poured in to a host of groups and organizations. Although many of the donations made their way to hurricane victims, the effort by the Nicaraguan Consulate became bogged down.

But it received a major boost Saturday from the $20,000 gift provided by the Tri-City Honduran Relief Day Project. The head of the group, Steven Harshey, said the money was left over from funds raised to ship food and medicine to storm-ravaged Honduras.

“We were certainly eager and ready to help,” said Harshey, whose group includes residents from Placentia, Yorba Linda and Brea. “We were committed to getting aid to the people who need it most.”

The donation, Mendez said, will cover shipping costs for more than half of the stockpiled provisions. The consul also said several truckers have pledged to transport all the provisions to shipping containers at the Port of Los Angeles, where they will be loaded on a freighter headed for Nicaragua.

Despite the daunting task of moving mountains of goods--and criticism from skeptics who say the items will be stolen or rot in warehouses once they reach Central America--volunteers were upbeat at the North Hollywood facility.

“Anybody who says they don’t need this or won’t get it needs to take a trip to Nicaragua,” said Peter Karl of Tustin, as he used a dolly to push a heavy pallet of provisions to a truck. In his job as a director of an international development organization, Karl visited Nicaragua after the hurricane.

In the background, men, women and children packed and taped cardboard boxes. Others sorted, separating essentials such as antibiotics from items that were not so necessary, such as a case of champagne that was sitting on one of the pallets. The warehouse, which two days earlier was crammed with jumbled piles of bags and boxes, began to take on a semblance of organization.

“I want to be part of something good,” said Canoga Park resident Jack Del Rio, taking a breather from lifting heavy boxes. “There’s people out there suffering. . . . And we need to help each other on this planet.

“That’s why I’m here.”