San Pedro Sula, the nation’s second biggest city, was devastated. We’re all scared… it’s the worst thing we’ve ever been through.”
“There’s no food, nowhere to bathe, no electricity,” Donaire says. Two weeks later, it’s still raining hard and the family remains in the funeral home, without any support from the state. With the water up to his chest, Sergio Donaire, a 35-year-old upholsterer, arrived at the funeral home with his wife and three daughters after fleeing their house, which was practically destroyed. “Worry at knowing what’s coming, as the media says it’s something huge and super dangerous.”Įncarni Pindado Sergio Donaire’s family sought refugee in the funeral home in La Lima after their house was flooded. “You feel a nervousness, a tension among us,” Tabora reflects. Many of those affected have suffered post-traumatic stress due to everything they’ve been through since Eta, the first hurricane, approached. “When we saw the distress people were in we didn’t even think about these things… come on, maybe they could be saved here, even if there’s not much room.”
“I understand that there are people who came with small children, saving their babies, and they didn’t remember their masks because of the anguish,” she says. Tabora had already buried many COVID-19 victims and even had to close her business for a while because of the pandemic, but she immediately put her concerns to one side to shelter those who needed her help. The impact of the hurricanes was so severe that it made many people forget, at least momentarily, about the pandemic that has changed the world. ‘The worst thing we’ve ever been through’ While the arrival of two such powerful storms just two weeks apart was an almost unprecedented natural disaster in Honduras, many of the affected believe the authorities have abandoned them to their fate.Įncarni Pindado The highway between San Pedro Sula and La Lima flooded after hurricane Iota struck. The two hurricanes left at least 94 dead affecting almost 4 million people across the nation, and analysts say they could cause the level of poverty to rise by 10%, surpassing 70% of the population. When it rains it pours in Honduras, a country that had already suffered multiple crisis in recent years: state repression, gang violence, economic problems, environmental destruction, mass emigration and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 30 families took refuge there after losing their homes to the hurricanes Eta and Iota, which devastated large swathes of Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua in the first weeks of November. “We were surrounded by water, people started saying ‘help us, we want to come in’, so we opened the door downstairs so that people could get in,” says Tabora, the owner of a two-storey funeral home that she turned into an improvised shelter. Juana Tabora knew she had to help her neighbours when the water began to flood the streets, blocking the exits in La Lima, her city in northwestern Honduras. More than 114,000 homes have no power and over 47,000 are without water, the government said.News DecemWhen it rains it pours: The devastating impact of hurricanes Eta and Iota in Honduras In Bilwi, Nicaragua, there are "falling trees, electricity poles, roofs of houses that were blown up in the air and a hotel that lost its entire roof," SINAPRED's Director Guillermo González said. Vice President Rosario Murillo also said two children died while trying to cross a river on Monday. In Nicaragua, at least 16 people died, including 12 of whom died in a landslide in Matagalpa, state-run Radio Nicaragua reported. The rainfall is expected to cause mudslides and life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding.
Iota made landfall Monday night in Nicaragua, and though the storm is dissipating, the threat for heavy rain continues. WATCH: From destroyed homes to emergency rescues, here's a look at Central America in the wake of Hurricane Iota.Īt least 26 people are dead in the wake of powerful Hurricane Iota, which is still delivering heavy rain and winds to Central America.
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