"I've been to too many disasters all over the world," says Vlatko Uzevski, who arrived in Honduras last week from Macedonia to lead an emergency response team for Project Hope.
"And I have never been to a place that was struck by two hurricanes in two weeks," says Uzevski, a physician who has been doing this type of work for 15 years.
The two Category 4 hurricanes – Eta and Iota — made landfall in Central America on Nov. 3 and Nov. 17 respectively. Even today, the region continues to dig out from mudslides. Aid agencies say nearly 7 million people in a zone stretching from Colombia to Mexico are in need of assistance.
This week in a nationally broadcast address, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández assured his people, "No están solos" meaning "You are not alone."
The storms destroyed bridges, roads, schools and health clinics. Families lost their homes, farms and businesses to floodwaters. Landslides packed small downtown plazas with mud.
Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans remain homeless. Many are crowded into shelters. Others are staying with friends and relatives.
President Hernández announced a plan to invest 4 times the nation's annual budget in infrastructure and social programs to help Hondurans recover from the devastating storms. (...)
Aid officials say that the damage from hurricanes Eta and Iota rival the damage caused by Hurricane Mitch one of the deadliest Atlantic storms of all time. Mitch hit Honduras in 1998, left 3 million people homeless and prompted tens of thousands of Hondurans to migrate to the United States.
"The damage in terms of costs, destruction, damage to agriculture is just as high," as from Mitch, says Hugo Rodriguez, deputy assistant secretary of state for Central America, about Eta and Iota. "This is Mitch-scale if not bigger." The U.S. through USAID has pledged millions of dollars to help respond to the crisis.
And it's not just Honduras. The record-breaking hurricane season displaced even more people in Guatemala.
Steve McAndrew, deputy regional director, for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says his agency has relief operations in response to Eta and Iota now in seven countries.
"Hurricane Eta affected almost all of Central America, including Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua," he says. "And then the second hurricane Iota also had a direct hit on the San Andreas Islands, which are part of Colombia. There's heavy damage and the region's been heavily affected."
by Jason Beaubien, NPR | Read more:
Image: Jose Cabezas/Reuters
