Honduras
Fray Trino Espinal, member of the Franciscan Network on Migration’s coordinating team, is out in Culmí and has been participating in the assessment of the Eta damage. The rivers that have overflowed are Ulua, Aguan, Wampu, in the areas of San Pedro Sula, El Progreso, Yoro, and Culmi, Olancho. (This may not be a complete list, but it’s what he reported.) The San Pedro Sula airport was completely flooded. There are areas where 100% of the harvest has been ruined. In Tegucigalpa, they have also had problems with the Choluteca bridge.
There is very little aid getting out to the affected areas because the highways are flooded. In Culmí, the emergency response team is trying to equip shelters, although they are also quite cut off. Fray Trino mentioned an area of 14 villages that has no phone service or communications. The merchants generally come into Culmi (8 hour drive) to purchase food and other items for the shops, and they got stuck. There is a large group of them living in a shelter because they cannot get back to their villages.
Salto de Agua, Chiapas, México
“This is how we woke up this morning,” said Sr. Diana Muñoz, FMM, who serves at the Casa Betania Migrant House in Salto de Agua. The watchmen and cooks were not able to arrive, the whole town is without water and although the migrant house is not flooded, we are essentially on an island. For this reason we find ourselves in dire need of closing the shelter for a few days. We are trying to show solidarity with the people who are living this nightmare and who in the Betania mission have been very supportive of us. One of the shelter cooks, like many families from Salto de Agua, are out on the train tracks with the few things they could rescue.
Almost the entire municipal office building in Salto de Agua is flooded. During the night the river level exceeded 14 meters, pouring into the surrounding villages. The Civil Protection Group is carrying out rescue work for people who could not leave their homes in time. It is worth mentioning that one of the shelters located in the Salomón González Blanco preparatory school is about to be hit by water, so it will be relocated to the municipal agency, a higher point for the safety of the affected population
