News on Recent Natural Disasters
June 2, 2010
By Eileen Lambert
UPDATE - June 10th
Several countries in Central America are recovering from disasters that struck the area in the past couple of weeks. Governments in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have declared states of emergency, and many homes, roads and bridges have been washed away. All Water For People programs have reported that they are safe and were spared from major damage. However many people still remain homeless in Guatemala and problems are still severe for those affected. Our thoughts are with these communities.
JUNE 2nd POSTING
Several countries where Water For People works faced disaster in the past two weeks. Damage to our program areas is not completely known, but across the board most of our staff and their families have only faced minimal problems. Here’s an update on each situation:
Pacific tropical storm, Agatha, the first storm of the hurricane season, struck Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and southern Mexico over the weekend. About 172 people in Guatemala, 16 people in Honduras, and 10 in El Salvador were killed by the storm, and many more are reported missing. More than 135,000 people in Guatemala have been evacuated. The floods caused a massive sinkhole in Guatemala City and wiped out bridges in both Guatemala and Honduras, affecting travel between locations and thwarting travel to remote villages. In addition, the road between Guatemala City and Santa Cruz del Quiche, Water For People’s program area, is blocked due to landslides. Some schools in both Guatemala and Honduras are closed, and will re-open once the governments establish that the emergency is over. Even though the storm has passed, there are still warnings in the region that swollen rivers might cause more flooding and more damage to riparian communities. According to reports, about a meter of water dropped on the eastern coast of Guatemala, parts of El Salvador, and parts of Honduras.
Agatha hit Central America just two days after the Pacaya volcano eruption in Guatemala. The volcano caused the airport to close and is most deeply affecting Guatemala City. Officials have said that the volcanic ash, followed by the storm has a good change of aggravating the flood situation because it will begin to block the drainage systems.
This month, World Water Corps® volunteers are heading into Central America in support of our partners’, CARE and CRS, schools as part of the SWASH+ initiative. Due to the vast damage caused by the volcano and Agatha, the Guatemala assignments scheduled for June 6-12 have been postponed two weeks. Volunteers are also heading into Nicaragua on June 13-19 and this will go as planned, as the area was not severely affected by the storm. There’s another group of World Water Corps volunteers surveying schools in El Salvador and in Honduras, which are also scheduled to proceed as planned.
In India, the cities and villages in the state of West Bengal, our focus area in India, hunkered down for Cyclone Laila two weeks ago, but escaped the brunt of the storm. The states of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa were hardest hit, killing 16 people and collapsing a 500-year-old temple. While the cyclone didn’t devastate the area, instances of diarrhea due to the floods and water contamination were a major concern.
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