Death toll rises in Central America after Hurricane Iota
Hurricane Iota’s death toll in the Central America region rose on Wednesday to at least 16, including two children, as survivors and rescuers continue to wade through murky waters and catastrophic debris.
Five people died in Honduras and six in Nicaragua,
Gonzalo Atxaerandio, the Central America disaster and crisis coordinator for the Red Cross who is organizing relief efforts in Honduras, told the Miami Herald.
Dr. Ciro Ugarte, director of health emergencies for the Pan American Health Organization, said Nicaragua reported at least 10 deaths, including four people who died in a massive landslide.
Meanwhile, the Honduran government’s latest numbers show Iota destroyed at least 7,500 homes and displaced about 70,000 people to about 750 shelters.
Colombian President Ivan Duque had said on Tuesday that the Category 4 storm killed one person when it barreled through the Colombian archipelago of San Andres and Providencia, about 230 miles off of the northeastern Nicaraguan coast.
These fatalities will be added to the ones left behind by Eta, the other major hurricane that slammed into
the area earlier this month. PAHO reported 150 people had died from Eta in Central America as of Monday night, before Iota made landfall in Nicaragua.
The organization estimates at least 6.5 million people in Central America have been affected in some way by Iota and Eta, which has sparked a massive humanitarian disaster. Ugarte warned the numbers could keep on mounting.
“There have been persons who have disappeared and right now multi-institutional teams are dealing with that crisis,” Ugarte said during PAHO’s weekly press update on the COVID-19 pandemic in the Americas.
On Tuesday, the Vice President of Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo, acknowledged the lives lost.
“We are saddened by each one of those brothers and sisters that we lose in these circumstances,” she said.
She named some of those who perished and described their deaths: a father and son who went home to grab things for the shelter swept by a landslide and a woman who fell into raging waters.
There were about 63,000 people housed across about 680 shelters on Tuesday, Murillo said in a preliminary report.
In Nicaragua, the destruction is centered in the northeastern coast, while in Honduras it encompasses the entire country.
Atxaerandio, with the Red Cross in Honduras, said he‘s most worried about dams that are at near full capacity in Honduras, even as heavy rainfall continues in some areas.
Because shelters are over capacity in Honduras, so many people who became homeless after Eta weathered Iota in makeshift tents and tarps on the streets, he said.
“We’re very worried,” he said. “Obviously, we’re trying to help them first, because their vulnerability is higher, but it’s difficult.”
Reynaldo Francis Watson, the former regional governor of the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region and ex-mayor of the indigenous city of Puerto Cabezas, said he visited four hurricane shelters across the port city on Wednesday.
The Miskito leader estimated that about 5,000 to 6,000 people had evacuated to the shelters that he visited. Many refugees, he said, were still in a state of shock.
“People are not doing well, they are disoriented, worried, then they start laughing, then stop,” Watson said.