Nicaraguan Tidal Wave Toll Nears 100 : Disaster: Thousands are homeless. Government makes an urgent appeal for international aid.

Splintered huts and buildings littered a 200-mile swath of Nicaragua’s coast Wednesday following a tidal wave that left thousands homeless. Government officials said nearly 100 people were killed. Rescue workers expected the death toll to rise.

A major earthquake at sea caused a wall of water up to 30 feet high to sweep over much of the Nicaraguan coast. It submerged islands and rolled more than half a mile inland in some places, destroying beachfront homes and hotels and scattering wrecked boats and cars.

The surge of water sucked people and small buildings out to sea as it retreated.

Nicaragua’s government appealed urgently for international aid.

“The sea took us by surprise. All of a sudden, I was swimming inside my own home, and all my furniture was floating around me,” said Socorro Lopez, 47, who lost two grandchildren here in Masachapa, a beach resort of about 2,000 people south of the capital of Managua.

“This huge wave swallowed us, house and all. Now I’ll never be able to bring my grandchildren back,” the woman said, sobbing as the recovered bodies of the 4-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl were laid out nearby.

Eight of the nine confirmed dead in Masachapa were children.

The Nicaraguan Ministry of Health listed the names of 75 people confirmed dead in 16 seaside communities. But Civil Defense chief Capt. Guillermo Guevara, speaking at a news conference called by President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro late Wednesday, said the death toll “was near 100.”

Guevara said 150 people were missing and about 300 houses were destroyed. He said 27 communities were significantly damaged.

In Geneva, U.N. officials said they would release $30,000 to buy urgent supplies.

The United States provided $25,000 in preliminary aid. The funds were released by Ronald Goddard, the senior U.S. diplomat in Managua, from the U.S. Embassy’s discretionary fund.

The United States is holding up $104 million in economic aid to Nicaragua in a political dispute. However, the Washington Post reported today that a State Department spokesman in Washington said, “We are prepared to provide humanitarian assistance to the government of Nicaragua in dealing with this tragedy.” The regional director of U.S. disaster relief was dispatched here from Costa Rica to assess needs.

The missing included at least 12 fishermen lost at sea near Masachapa, Red Cross officials said.

The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 7.0, struck at 6:16 p.m. and was centered 75 miles southwest of Managua, according to the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

Aftershocks followed, and the center said that they will probably continue for days but that further damage is unlikely.

Nonetheless, authorities evacuated thousands of people from coastal areas, and wailing ambulances sped through towns picking up the injured and dying.

The earthquake was among the most damaging to hit Nicaragua since a 1972 quake with a magnitude of 6.2 devastated Managua, killing 5,000 people.

Chamorro, whose country is struggling to recover from a decade-long civil war that ended with her election in February, 1990, dispatched soldiers with medical supplies and tents.

“I ask for unity and faith in God,” she said in a nationwide radio address before making a helicopter tour of the devastated areas at dawn.

The tidal wave, formally known as a tsunami, smashed into dozens of communities from Corinto, 50 miles northwest of Managua, to San Juan del Sur on the Costa Rican border.

Danilo Brenes, a resident of Masachapa, said he was walking along the beach when he saw the wall of water coming. “I yelled to my wife and we took off running.”

In Puerto Sandino, about 40 miles from the capital, a six-foot surge scattered shipping containers and vehicles and damaged a dock.

Managua felt the earthquake, but no major damage was reported in the capital.

A quake of magnitude 7 is considered a “major” earthquake capable of causing widespread heavy damage.

Tsunamis: The Killer Sea Waves

1. Tsunamis are generated by massive underwater earthquakes and are common around the Pacific.

The destructive waves can travel at more than 435 m.p.h.

2. The waves move inland from deep ocean to shallow water, growing larger.

Individual waves may occur at intervals of 15 minutes, or 125 miles apart.

3. Approaching a coast, the waves slow down, bunch up and rise. They may rise as high as a 10-story building.

When the waves break, they can cause great destruction.

Source: The Random House Encyclopedia, “Our Violent Earth”