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Rain, Rain, Go Away
Heavy rain has soaked Honduras since the beginning of October. In the past few weeks more than 30 people have died and 40,000 others were forced from their homes. It is estimated that 270,000 people have been affected by the disaster so far, either by being made homeless or losing their crops. This is a huge number of people in a small country with a population of just seven million.
Many of the crops that have been destroyed by this flooding are food staples such as corn, beans, plantain and yucca. Some cash crops like bananas, sugar cane and Africa palm have also been lost. Venezuela, Cuba and Japan have sent emergency aid.
Seventeen out of the 18 regions of Honduras have had flooding of some kind and it is still raining. Last nights rain was the biggest downpour we have seen since we came here. Reports warn we will have rain until the weekend. One of the main dams in the country had to be opened several times over the weekend to allow water to flow out in a controlled way so that it did not burst. This has caused the rivers to swell to dangerous levels.
All the schools in La Ceiba have been shut down the past two days because of the rain and flooding. This current storm has dropped more rain then the tropical storm did two weeks ago.
Personally our family and home are fine. The people we work with in Armenia Bonito are fine. There is deep standing water and lots of mud everywhere. It seems like most of La Ceiba is at a stand still. Most stores are closed and most streets are flooded. But, major damage is at a minimum here.
