Are there natural disasters like flooding, earthquakes, fire or hurricanes in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua?
Carlos Amador - DISCOVER Real Estate
As far as earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters are concerned, San Juan del Sur is pretty safe.
In San Juan del Sur, it is possible to have a tsunami. From memory, the last tsunami we had was 14 years ago, and it was a small one. Because of the topography and the form of the bay in San Juan del Sur, the mainland is protected from much of the roughness of the ocean. The way that everything is laid out, Costa Rica also...
As far as earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters are concerned, San Juan del Sur is pretty safe.
In San Juan del Sur, it is possible to have a tsunami. From memory, the last tsunami we had was 14 years ago, and it was a small one. Because of the topography and the form of the bay in San Juan del Sur, the mainland is protected from much of the roughness of the ocean. The way that everything is laid out, Costa Rica also protects San Juan del Sur from larger and damaging waves.
If you move more to the north of San Juan del Sur, there are fewer bays, so the land is more open to the sea, which increases the probability of a tsunami. From memory again, the last problem from a tsunami was more than 60 years ago.
Unless you buy something in the lowlands and essentially in a flood plain, you don’t have to worry about flooding in San Juan del Sur. In the entire area from Costa Rica past San Juan del Sur, you will find very few areas where flooding is any kind of a problem at all.
San Juan del Sur also doesn’t have significant earthquakes. The faults are mainly in other parts of Nicaragua, far enough away that when there is an earthquake in Managua, even though they feel it in San Juan del Sur, it will not be enough to cause damage. It’s pretty safe.
San Juan del Sur doesn’t have problems with brush fires like they have in places like California.
Posted July 2, 2014
Eugenio Cortez - Hacienda & Ecolodge Morgan´s Rock
Nicaragua is a country with some bad luck 
when dealing with Mother Nature. We have had hurricanes hit the Atlantic Coast, major earthquakes that leveled Managua (twice!), flooding, and some wild fires in the northern part of the country.
In the San Juan del Sur area, luckily, you won´t find any of these! Hurricanes only hit the Atlantic Coast (remember, San Juan del Sur is on the Pacific side), earthquakes are felt more like tremors (nothing bigger than 5.5 on the Richter...
when dealing with Mother Nature. We have had hurricanes hit the Atlantic Coast, major earthquakes that leveled Managua (twice!), flooding, and some wild fires in the northern part of the country.In the San Juan del Sur area, luckily, you won´t find any of these! Hurricanes only hit the Atlantic Coast (remember, San Juan del Sur is on the Pacific side), earthquakes are felt more like tremors (nothing bigger than 5.5 on the Richter...
Nicaragua is a country with some bad luck when dealing with Mother Nature. We have had hurricanes hit the Atlantic Coast, major earthquakes that leveled Managua (twice!), flooding, and some wild fires in the northern part of the country.
In the San Juan del Sur area, luckily, you won´t find any of these! Hurricanes only hit the Atlantic Coast (remember, San Juan del Sur is on the Pacific side), earthquakes are felt more like tremors (nothing bigger than 5.5 on the Richter Scale), and wild fires are non-existent.
A natural disaster that could potentially hit SJDS is a tsunami, and the last one was in 1991. It’s safe to say natural disasters don’t occur in San Juan del Sur.
when dealing with Mother Nature. We have had hurricanes hit the Atlantic Coast, major earthquakes that leveled Managua (twice!), flooding, and some wild fires in the northern part of the country.In the San Juan del Sur area, luckily, you won´t find any of these! Hurricanes only hit the Atlantic Coast (remember, San Juan del Sur is on the Pacific side), earthquakes are felt more like tremors (nothing bigger than 5.5 on the Richter Scale), and wild fires are non-existent.
A natural disaster that could potentially hit SJDS is a tsunami, and the last one was in 1991. It’s safe to say natural disasters don’t occur in San Juan del Sur.
Posted July 4, 2014
Lucy Valenti - Liv Nicaragua
San Juan del Sur is a very protected area that hasn’t had a natural disaster that I can remember.
San Juan del Sur doesn’t have a problem with fire. Earthquakes are far enough away not to present an issue. The areas with seismic activities in Nicaragua tend to be around Managua, Masaya and Leon.
While there are hurricanes on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and, on the Pacific side, there has been damage...
San Juan del Sur is a very protected area that hasn’t had a natural disaster that I can remember.
San Juan del Sur doesn’t have a problem with fire. Earthquakes are far enough away not to present an issue. The areas with seismic activities in Nicaragua tend to be around Managua, Masaya and Leon.
While there are hurricanes on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and, on the Pacific side, there has been damage from hurricanes in Managua and Leon, San Juan del Sur hasn’t ever experienced any issues, as far as I can remember.
Relative to issues from the ocean, San Jan del Sur is a bay, so it is protected.
Posted July 18, 2014
Joe Lopes - las escadas condominiums
There was a tsunami in San Juan Del Sur fifteen years ago, but it did not do a lot of damage except for the floods. There were no reports of anybody getting hurt when that happened. There is a national tsunami alert and they predict when a tsunami is coming; they alarm the whole coast of Nicaragua. Big floods do not happen here, either. We don’t get floods, even if we experience heavy rains. Normally, flooding is caused by garbage that clogs...
There was a tsunami in San Juan Del Sur fifteen years ago, but it did not do a lot of damage except for the floods. There were no reports of anybody getting hurt when that happened. There is a national tsunami alert and they predict when a tsunami is coming; they alarm the whole coast of Nicaragua. Big floods do not happen here, either. We don’t get floods, even if we experience heavy rains. Normally, flooding is caused by garbage that clogs the drains. One thing that I admire about San Juan Del Sur is how clean the people who live here keep the place. You won’t see too much garbage on the streets.
Natural disasters do not concern me a lot. There was an earthquake in July and that made some houses collapse, but those were old buildings. The houses that we build here are seismic proof. When we had that earthquake in July, the buildings that we built did not even show any cracks. If you follow the building code here in Nicaragua you do not have to worry about earthquakes. The problem is that some people build bricks on top of bricks and those type of houses are the ones that usually collapse during big earthquakes.
Posted October 23, 2014
Julie Speier - San Juan del Sur Day School
About 15 years ago, there was a tsunami that happened in San Juan Del Sur but it wasn’t too bad. I think it made it around 100 yards into town. We have evacuated have a dozen times in the last seven years because back then we were still living right on the beach so when there is a big earthquake, they usually call a tsunami warning and we evacuate. Now, we are situated on the farm in the mountains so we don’t need to evacuate for tsunami warnings anymore....
About 15 years ago, there was a tsunami that happened in San Juan Del Sur but it wasn’t too bad. I think it made it around 100 yards into town. We have evacuated have a dozen times in the last seven years because back then we were still living right on the beach so when there is a big earthquake, they usually call a tsunami warning and we evacuate. Now, we are situated on the farm in the mountains so we don’t need to evacuate for tsunami warnings anymore.Earthquakes more dangerous in Managua because the buildings are closer together and not very well built. In San Juan Del Sur I have felt a few good earthquakes in seven years but nothing was really damaged.
People love setting controlled fires here in San Juan Del Sur but they are pretty good in keeping them in control most of the time. They do a lot of controlled burning in order to avoid out of control burning. Since I have lived here, I haven’t seen nor heard of anybody lose his or her house due to uncontrolled fires.
There are no hurricanes here because they don’t hit here in San Juan Del Sur. Hurricanes come to the Caribbean side. We haven’t seen any serious flooding, either. There had been some really heavy rains, which caused a quick flash flood down a busy street but the earth here is always so thirsty that an hour after the rain, the flood is also gone.
In general, I am not concerned about natural disasters here in San Juan Del Sur.
(View of the beach from a high elevation at San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, pictured.)
Posted January 29, 2016