The constant rains caused by a cold front and a low pressure system yesterday left floods and thousands of people evacuated or cut off in Honduras, mainly in the north of the country, for which the authorities declared a national emergency.
On instructions from the Honduran president, Xiomara Castro, the National Risk Management System (Sinager) was activated to address the rain emergency caused by the two phenomena.
So far, the rainfall has left nearly 33,000 people affected, many of them remain sheltered in shelters, while others are in the homes of relatives or friends, according to figures from the Secretariat of Risk and Contingency Management of Honduras.
In addition, 7,000 people are incommunicado in the municipality of Quimistan, department of Santa Bárbara, in the west of the country, indicated its mayor, Rubén Darío Pacheco.
“At the moment we do not have shelters installed because the affected people decided to seek protection in the homes of family or friends,” explained Pacheco, who said he hopes that help will arrive from the Government soon.
They transfer humanitarian aid
The municipalities of the department of Cortés (in the north) are the regions most affected so far by the rains, where authorities have begun to transfer humanitarian aid, the director of the Secretariat of Risk and Contingency Management of Honduras, Darío, told reporters. Garcia.
The Honduran institution indicated that it continues “the displacement of the mass of cold air that will be interacting with the circulation of a low pressure system, located to the east of Nicaragua and generating cloudiness, fresh wind and accelerated altered waves in the Caribbean, a decrease in the temperature”.
According to the director of the Honduran Social Investment Fund (FHIS), Octavio Pineda, there are at least 164 homes affected or destroyed and 65 damaged road sections, mainly in Cortés, which is under red alert (emergency).
The resident coordinator of the United Nations in Tegucigalpa, Alice Shackelford, expressed solidarity with the Central American country for the emergency and pointed out that the Humanitarian Network is supporting Sinager to care for those affected by the rains.
Alerts and restrictions
The Honduran authorities maintain a red alert in the departments of Santa Bárbara (west), Cortés, Atlántida, Bahía Islands and Colón (Caribbean); Yoro (north), Gracias a Dios (east) and northern Olancho (east).
On yellow alert, surveillance, are Copán, Lempira, Intibucá and Ocotepeque (west), La Paz, Comayagua and Francisco Morazán (center), El Paraíso (east), Choluteca and Valle (south).
The municipality of Alianza, department of Valle, southern Honduras, also remains under this alert due to the damage caused by the overflowing of the Goascorán River and flooding in the Costa de los Amates sector.
Maximum alert entails “the execution of evacuation plans” in risk areas and taking shelter in previously designated safe areas.
According to the Center for Atmospheric, Oceanographic and Seismic Studies (Cenaos), the rains will continue to affect the Honduran territory for at least 48 more hours.
Given the weather forecasts, civil protection authorities asked to suspend fishing and navigation activities on small and medium draft boats in the Caribbean due to altered waves.
