By Marie Mulvenna

The following special broadcast was made by operator YN 1 HJ an American member of the amateur radio network in Managua, Nicaragua, following the disastrous earthquake there. The broadcast for the Bulletin was made through the cooperation of W. Allen Peacock, a parishioner of Sacred Heart Parish, and long active in radio operations. The message is not quoted verbatim as transmission is somewhat problematic due to conditions in the city following the earthquake.

Managua – YN 1 Broadcast to Atlanta: Several girls’ Catholic schools in the area were very severely damaged. One school which is run by sisters from San Antonio was damaged very heavily. Another nearby Catholic school received heavy damage.

At still another Catholic school in the area, the entire faculty of 14 brothers was killed instantly. There is nothing left, nothing at all. The place, church and school, is totally and completely demolished. The only saving part of the horrible tragedy here is that it happened at night, when the students would not be there. Plus the fact of vacation, none of the students were at the school but all the brothers died immediately when the roof of the building caved in. No one is allowed in that area at all. It is complete destruction. The Catholic Church of Santo Domingo, which was completed about a year and a half ago after four years of continuous building, was badly hit. It is a gorgeous church and has huge, beautiful spires that can be seen for miles. They are today broken and leaning over but have not yet completely fallen. The church is in shambles inside.

Still another church and school were leveled. There is not a thing left of it.

The downtown area is completely evacuated. The looting has stopped and things are coming around to normal. We’re trying to get back some electricity and water.

We’ll come back … The Nicaraguans are a fine people and they’ll make it back fine. It’s 85 degrees today, fair and breezy. Everyone is trying desperately today to get our confidence back. We will do it.

Mr. Peacock also shared with the Bulletin the first broadcast out of Managua following the earthquake.

It was made at 10 a.m. the following morning.

Certain areas of the city are on fire, many of them out of control. Two of our four hospitals have been demolished. The center of the city is also demolished. Deaths are high; very high. The earthquake has caused serious damage everywhere. There is an electricity and water problem and things are terribly hectic. There are quite a number of deaths and more are expected. The U.S. Embassy here was completely flattened last night.

Mr. Peacock told the Bulletin that any communications out of the city were, initially, provided by radio. Only those radio operators having an emergency power supply were able to broadcast due to the complete shutdown of electrical supply in Managua. The Nicaraguan operators have reached innumerable families in the U.S. relaying messages of relatives in Nicaragua at the time of the disaster. An attempt to make direct radio contact with an operator in Britain was fouled up by atmospheric problems and a U.S. operator then served as a relay and forwarded the Nicaraguan message directly to England. There is no telephone contact yet available to Nicaragua and all messages of any nature has been relayed out of the country via short-wave radio operators.