“A great wave of solidarity has risen among all the people”
They say that every 20 or 25 years a big hurricane hits Honduras. In 1974 it was Hurricane Fifi. In 1998 it was Hurricane Mitch. In 2020 the Eta, which is named after the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet.
Eta was the strongest hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season in 2020, and the second strongest on record in November (almost out of hurricane season). It formed as a tropical depression on October 31st. The next day it was already a tropical storm, and intensified rapidly, reaching the rank of hurricane on November 2, in record time, and reaching category 4 (on a scale of 5). Eta made landfall in Nicaragua on November 3 with winds of 225 km/h, but by then it had already produced abundant rainfall in Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and part of Mexico, as the amount of clouds it attracted covered an area of 400 km in length. Degraded to a tropical storm and then to a tropical depression, it entered Honduran territory on the night of Wednesday 4, and crossed Puerto Cortés on Thursday afternoon-night very weak, with winds of barely 40 km/h. But by then all the damage was done. It rained heavily in Puerto Cortes from Sunday to Wednesday. On Monday water had already entered some houses in the colony La Esperanza, when the hurricane had not even reached Nicaraguan land. The forecasts of “catastrophic winds” (in Nicaragua) and “catastrophic floods threatening life” (in Honduras) were not at all encouraging. On Wednesday it rained heavily and about 150 mm of rain fell in Puerto Cortés.
By Tuesday afternoon there were already about 60 families evacuated in the neighborhoods of La Esperanza and Nuevos Horizontes. On Wednesday afternoon there were more than 400 families in the whole Port, and the number has not stopped growing. The latest data speak of 1,427 families (7,008) people) located in 68 shelters in our municipality, not counting the evacuees who are in the homes of family or friends.
On Thursday, the rain stopped and the sun came out; the water that was flooding some neighborhoods began to fall, some returned to their homes. However, we still had a surprise. The amount of rainfall in the interior of the country and in the West increased enormously the flow of the Ulua and Chamelecon rivers. The flow of the Ulua grew 4 meters more than in the Mitch. On Thursday morning we were shocked by the news that the Ulua had overflowed into Lima and the Planeta colony. The river entered the streets with all its fury, torrentially. People had no time to get out and many were trapped on the roofs of their houses. From there urgent calls arrived to anyone who had boats to help in the evacuation tasks, which lasted for more than two days. There were entire families who spent up to two days on the roof of their homes, without drinking water or food, waiting to be rescued, with the anguish of not knowing if the water would flood them completely. Currently there are people missing in these places. The next day the Chamelecón River overflowed in Choloma, causing a similar situation, and at night the floods reached the Baracoa sector, already in the municipality of Puerto Cortés. Even places that had originally served as shelters were flooded and had to be evacuated, and people relocated to new shelters. On Saturday, the flooding reached the colonies of La Esperanza and August 14. The lagoon gradually rose throughout the day, and in the afternoon the order was given to evacuate the neighborhoods of Pueblo Nuevo, Nuevos Horizontes and Buenos Aires as a precaution. The Chamber Channel, which connects the Chamelecón River to the lagoon, was largely responsible for the lagoon’s rising level. The situation was critical in the sea sector, especially in Bajamar and Brisas, which were cut off and largely flooded by water. The water also entered Travesia and several families had to take refuge in the senior center. Fortunately, in the early hours of Sunday morning the water began to recede and we all breathed a sigh of relief after another night of tension and worry.
The rural communities have also suffered damage, with the increase of the riverbed that has destroyed some houses, the destruction of roads (some villages are still incommunicado) and landslides. It seems that there are no regrets, however, about the human losses. Crop losses have not been quantified, but are also expected to be significant. Some villages have seen their electricity supply cut off and the supply of drinking water has been interrupted for a few days throughout the city of El Puerto, although hard work is being done to restore it, and this has already been done in part.
The task ahead is arduous. Reconstruction will be everyone’s job. On the one hand, there is the destruction of infrastructure: bridges, roads, paths, power lines, water supply, sewage collection… The damage is many throughout the country. Then there are the companies and businesses, already hit by the confinement and the COVID pandemic.19 Large maquila companies have suffered flooding of their facilities and damage to some of the machinery. The situation for farmers who have lost much of their harvest is no better. It will be necessary to support them and help them with seeds. And we do not forget those who have lost their homes, or who have kept all four walls but have lost what they had inside; families who have to start from scratch in a context where opportunities are increasingly scarce.
For the moment, a great wave of solidarity has risen throughout the village. People are organizing themselves to get food and bring it to the shelters, to offer clothes and mats… Churches, companies, civil organizations, firemen, good citizens, all are working hard to help those who have lost everything.
What is scary is tomorrow. We will have to be creative to help, as much as we can, those who have been hit the hardest by the storm. We will need to join forces and work together.
Ivan Juarros, C.M.
