Update on Hurricanes Eta and Lota in Honduras

(Left to Right) Flooding during Eta, Honduran Farmers, Landslide

By Andy Gaertner

As I write this, it is raining again in Honduras and water is rising in cities on the North coast, again.

The main thing to know is that all of the farmers and the families who we are connected with made it through the hurricanes. We have been in frequent contact with Alex Zavala, who has been tracking the families on the mountain. Yesterday Alex rode his motorcycle up to Las Moras, where multiple landslides during Eta had forced people to leave their homes. He was able to ride up to a certain point and then he had to walk the rest of the way. The report from Alex is that there were few new landslides in Las Moras during Iota, despite the storm being even bigger than Eta. The three farmers (Patrocinio, Maximo, and Benito) and their families weathered Iota and plan to stay in Las Moras. What is not clear is whether they can stay in their homes. After Eta, the municipality forbid people from reoccupying their homes, pending a safety review. Many people in Las Moras either lost their homes to landslides, or had landslides come very close. So now the three families are getting ready to move their houses. Farmer to Farmer is gathered money to support them.

More info and context:

It is hard to sit down and write about the impact of the recent hurricanes on Central America because in many ways the disaster is still unfolding. We will need to keep checking, often. A little over 20 years ago, Hurricane Mitch dumped so much rain on Honduras that thousands of people were killed in the ensuing floods and landslides. Roads and bridges washed away throughout the country, and people said the infrastructure was knocked back 20 years. At that time, the eyes of the world were on Honduras, and millions of dollars were committed to recuperation. Honduras bounced back and built many of the roads and bridges back better than before. It might be different now. Although there was not as much loss of life, the back to back hurricanes have perhaps caused more damage than Mitch, and Honduras is not in a good place to bounce back.

On the Comayagua mountain, where the families live who send coffee to Farmer to Farmer, almost every road and bridge has become impassable. The roads to Rio Negro were hit bad by landslides during Iota, and Alex said that people will have to find a completely new place to build access roads, because the current route is too compromised. This road building, by necessity, will destroy coffee farms and forests. If it is like that in Rio Negro, it is probably the same in other places on the mountain, and all over Honduras. Bulldozers will be in high demand in coffee country, especially with the harvest season coming up. Who will pay for all this road building? When Mitch hit, high coffee prices and exports meant that coffee communities could pay out of their profits. Now coffee is at historically low prices and it barely pays for the labor to pick it.

The response from the Honduran government so far has been disappointing and sometimes counterproductive. The issue is that Honduras is currently governed by Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH), who came to power in a coup several years ago. His brother is a convicted drug trafficker. JOH and his party manage the country for personal profit, so they are not ready, nor all that interested in responding to the needs of the nearly 4 million people affected by the hurricanes. One thing they are ready for is to skim off most of the aid that comes in to Honduras. People in Honduras take corruption and profiteering as the norm. Other countries know that Honduras is a corrupt “narco state” and are unwilling to give money directly to the government, which will make recovery harder.

This is made worse by a U.S. government that appears to be only capable of focusing on trying to overturn the results of their own election (they should ask JOH - his opponent was way ahead in the vote counts and exit polls and JOH stopped the counting late on election night, and when they restarted it, JOH was ahead). U.S. troops and helicopters were involved in rescuing people from rooftops and such, but the major rebuilding work is going to take considerable monetary resources and other support, and nothing is in the works.

This is made worse by the gang situation in Honduras. Most of the worst flooding happened in the Northwest part of the country in the big valley where the major cities of San Pedro Sula, Choloma, El Progresso, La Lima, and Puerto Cortes are located. Millions of people live in that valley, and most of the industry is there too. The San Pedro Sula area is also completely taken over by violent gangs, who divide up territory and extort people and businesses within their territories. Over 60% of the valley flooded, and much of the flooded area is also gang territory, which makes relief and recovery harder.

And of course, it is all made worse by the continued presence of COVID-19 in Honduras. The displacement of 4 million people in the middle of a pandemic can only be described as the worst COVID super-spreader event in the world. Honduran hospitals were already overwhelmed before the hurricanes.

I have been texting frequently with our friends. The city of Comayagua had relatively little damage. The drinking water system for the city was knocked out by the flooding, and I don’t know if it is back online yet. Some neighborhoods flooded and rivers did a lot of damage, but the water has receded. Our friends Pris and Marta had “go bags” ready, but did not need to flee their home in the city near the Rio Chiquito. Most of the damage was on the mountain, with landslides and flash floods destroying homes, farms, roads, and bridges. This includes the major road connecting Comayagua to San Jeronimo and points north, whose bridge was undermined by the flood. The same is true of the Perez family farm (Xochitl, Marta, and Pris’s family) in Santa Barbara. The people are fine, but the roads are impassable.

In the midst of hurricane Iota, our friends' house burned down in Rio Negro. Bertilia and Avilio have hosted many Farmer to Farmer delegations.

I am worried about the food situation in parts of Honduras. I have a friend in Minneapolis who has family in El Progresso. She said that the super markets were closed because there is no food because all the roads are flooded. This probably the case for millions of people on the north coast. This friend said her family was actually trying to buy food to cook for the people who were in shelters, but now the government has prohibited private individuals from providing food aid because of the worry over spreading COVID.

We will continue to monitor the news and provide updates as we are able. I recommend you make a facebook friend of Hector Oviedo, because he has been good about posting news and photos.

Thank you,

Andy Gaertner

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