Flooding in Central America Threatens Families

Areas of Guatemala hit by Hurricane Stan continue struggling to dig out and begin the long process of rebuilding villages and lives.

Photo: courtesy of Reuters/www.alertnet.org.

Destroyed bridges and ruined roads are hampering travel along the main highways in the area, further isolating affected areas.

The number of dead and missing has now surpassed 1,500, with nearly 110,000 people living in temporary shelters. Entire villages in some of Guatemala's poorest, most remote and populous regions were flooded or buried.

Mercy Corps needs your generous donation to continue its response to this unfolding tragedy.

The agency's staff is taking a leading role in international efforts to provide aid to victims of a disaster that some think could be worse than Hurricane Mitch, which devastated Central America in 1998. Between providing logistical support to the Guatemalan government and other international agencies and rushing food and medical aid to affected regions, Mercy Corps is tackling tough conditions that hampered aid in the wake of the storm.

As part of its coordination responsibility, Mercy Corps is evaluating current gaps in the relief efforts. There is a significant deficit in temporary shelters, housing, food and medicine.

Mercy Corps recently shipped 16,000 pounds of corn meal to San Marcos for distribution in that hard-hit department, enough to supply 1,500 families for 15 days. Mercy Corps staff has also welcomed a four-person team from Northwest Medical Teams and briefed them for duties that include running a temporary in a cold, mountainous area where an existing government healthcare center was destroyed in the storm.

With much world media attention focused on the earthquake in Pakistan and post-hurricane recovery in the United States, donations are desperately needed to fund emergency efforts in Guatemala. Rapid, effective relief efforts could prevent the kind of long-term disruption that followed Hurricane Mitch. In addition to killing an estimated 9,000 Central Americans, Mitch paralyzed the infrastructure of rural areas, slowing literacy, health and conflict-resolution efforts in a country still recovering from 30 years of civil war.

Active in Central America for more than a quarter century, Mercy Corps focuses on improving health care, developing local non-governmental organizations and resolving long-standing land disputes in rural Guatemala. Nearly all agency staff in the country are Guatemalan citizens.