Forwarded by: INFORMACION NEWS AGENCY Nelson Calderon - Editor in Chief P.O. Box 4432 Clifton, NJ 07012-0996 Fax: (201) 692-1273 Off: (201) 692-1891 <A HREF="mailto:InfoNewsAg">InfoNewsAg</A> (if you have AOL) Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <A HREF="http://welcome.to/NelsonCalderon">WWW.WELCOME.TO./INFORMACION.NEWS </A> or: http://www.welcome.to/NelsonCalderon Visit: http://www.welcome.to/cuba -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: EPICA <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: honduras devastation To: Cooperating agencies From: CCD Tegucigalpa Re: Hurricane Mitch Update #6 Date: 2 November 1998, 1030 hours local time The Christian Commission for Development urgently appeals to our friends around the world to respond immediately and generously to the unimaginable disaster caused by Hurricane Mitch in Honduras. We also appeal for your generous solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Nicaragua, who also have suffered terribly in these last few days. What remains of Mitch, now a tropical storm, has passed to the northwest and is now located in southern Mexico. Before leaving Honduras, however, it caused a level of destruction and suffering that we simply could not have envisioned beforehand. Comparing Mitch to Hurricane Fifi, which devastated Honduras in 1974, Vice President Billy Handal said yesterday,"Hurricane Fifi was nothing compared to this. It took 12 to 14 years of effort to overcome Fifi. This one will take 30 or 40 years." Yet before rebuilding can begin, hundreds of thousands of people remain homeless in Honduras, their homes flooded with water and mud or swept away by raging torrents of water. A 125-square mile area around El Progreso and La Lima remains under water. Hundreds of bodies are washing up at the mouths of rivers that flow into the Pacific, unidentified and uncounted victims of the storm's violence. Churches throughout Honduras have been turned into shelters. In Tegucigalpa, CCD is assisting four congregations that have opened their facilities to homeless victims. These include the Christian Reformed Church in the center of the city, the Presbyterian church in Villa Union, the Presbyterian church in Colonia La Esperanza, and the Lamb of God Pentecostal church in Colonia Estado Unidos, whose members have taken charge of managing an emergency shelter in a public school in their neighborhood. CCD staff are using the Monte Carmelo retreat center to prepare food for the shelters, and are prepared to take homeless families to the retreat center should the existing shelters overflow. CCD has food for about three or four days. Medicines and clothing are in critically short supply. CCD staff in the regional offices are responding as best they can. In Santa Barbara, the Quimistan-based staff report it is impossible to reach scores of rural villages that have been affected. Two leaders from Gracias a Dios, a courageous rural community of three dozen families that have struggled for a decade to defend their land, managed to get to Quimistan and reported that the entire community has been wiped out, the homes and crops swept away, many of the residents unaccounted for. Staff in Nacaome, in the southern part of the country downriver from Tegucigalpa, report similar conditions. The city of Choluteca is flooded. At least 20,000 people in just that zone are homeless. Electric service is out in the entire region. Several bridges have been washed away in the zone, preventing petroleum products from arriving in Tegucigalpa. CCD staff in Nacaome, Quimistan, and La Mosquitia are gathering what information they can and distributing what food supplies and medicine they had in their small warehouses. CCD staff in San Marcos are coordinating the collection of emergency supplies, cooperating with local Catholic, Mennonite, and other leaders to gather supplies and truck them to Quimistan once the road is opened.The ecumenical committee we are supporting in La Ceiba reports this morning that most of the people who took shelter in the churches have returned to their homes. Some 7,000 people remain homeless in the city, however. The mayor of La Ceiba has appealed to businesses to open as much as possible, but food and other basic materials are in short supply. We are in touch with the Mennonite Social Action Committee in San Pedro Sula, but they are reportedly in better shape than staff in Tegucigalpa to purchase and distribute relief supplies. We will continue assisting these groups as we can. Government officials estimate that 60 percent of the country's infrastructure has been destroyed. Scores of bridges are out in the entire country, making land transportation impossible. The San Pedro Sula airport has been destroyed. Export plantations and maquilas along the north coast have been covered with mud, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage and leaving tens of thousands without work once the water subsides. In Tegucigalpa, early in the week residents had generously donated clothing, food and medicine for their compatriots along the north coast. Then the storm took a cruel turn to the south, catching Tegucigalpa unawares and washing away several entire neighborhoods. Helicopters struggled in the rain to rescue families from rooftops, often without success, and many residents who survived watched in horror as their neighbors were swept away in the angry torrent. The mayor of Tegucigalpa, Cesar Castellanos, was killed along with three others on Sunday when the helicopter in which they were surveying damage crashed in the south of the city. Castellanos was a popular politician with a reputation for effectiveness and honesty, rare commodities in this country. His death came as a hard blow for many here who had counted on Castellanos to lead the struggle to rebuild the capital. Tegucigalpa remains cut off from the rest of the country, and food, water, and gasoline are in short supply. CCD appeals to our friends outside the country to respond urgently and immediately with the following: 1. Air shipment of emergency food, medicines, and clothing. There is no way to get supplies to affected areas except by air. The airports in Tegucigalpa, La Ceiba and Roatan are all reportedly open. They will remain the only way to get supplies through for several days or weeks. These urgently needed supplies include 50,000 pounds of powdered milk, 50,000 pounds of beans, 40,000 pounds of corn, 30,000 pounds of rice, 20,000 pounds of canned meat, 10,000 pounds of cooking oil, 40,000 pounds of wheat flour. We also need 1,000 bales of used clothing, 800 bales of blankets, and 6,000 health kits. 2. Medical brigades are needed desperately. These brigades will need to arrive by air, bringing with them their own medical supplies and equipment. We can coordinate where they work and provide logistical support as we are able. 3. We will soon need roofing and other material for the reconstruction of housing, materials for rebuilding village water systems, as well as seeds and other materials to help farmers replant their fields. 4. We need money. Some of these above materials can be purchased here. In addition, CCD will need soon to replace approximately $250,000 in loans managed by communal banks, funds that cannot be repaid by recipients of microcredit who have lost their homes and fields. In the difficult days and weeks and months ahead, we ask that you continue to support us with prayer, with generous assistance, and if possible with your presence. We encourage you to send financial donations to Church World Service. 475 Riverside Dr. New York NY 10115. Earmark the donation for Hurricane Mitch (appeal #976309) Donations earmarked in such a way will be used for assistance in all the affected countries. If you want the information we have at this point on Nicaragua, let us know. We urge you to participate in (or even initiate!) local efforts to collect and send material aid. ) thanks! > >> > > >> >EPICA > >> >1470 Irving St., NW > >> >Washington, DC 20010 > >> >Tel: 202/332-0292 > >> >Fax: 202/332-1184 > >> >Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> >Web: www.igc.apc.org/epica
