‘This was worse than Eta’: Hurricane Iota brings repeat destruction to Honduras
Nery Benitez was working shifts as a baggage handler at San Pedro Sula’s airport when it got flooded by Hurricane Eta. This week it was inundated again as Hurricane Iota struck.
“I had gone seven months without work and three days after I got called back this flooding happened,” the 50-year-old said. “We have family and children. How are we going to feed them?”
Just two weeks after Hurricane Eta brought widespread flooding and forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, Honduras was battered by a second hurricane, leaving a level of destruction in its wake that rivals the worst natural disasters in the region’s history.
The unprecedented double blow comes on top of the Covid-19 pandemic, which had already depleted government resources and left many people unemployed in one of the poorest countries in Latin America.
About 2.9 million people in Honduras were affected by Eta, according to the country’s emergency response unit, including many like Benitez whose homes were flooded to the rooftops. That number is expected to increase substantially following Iota, which made landfall on the north coast of Nicaragua on Monday as a category four hurricane before pushing through Honduras the following day as a tropical storm with torrential rain and heavy winds.
The second, much larger storm has destroyed many areas largely spared by Eta and increased the flood damage in already stricken areas.
“This time was worse than Eta,” said 54-year-old Norma Amador. Along with Benitez and many other residents of San Pedro Sula’s La Lima suburb, she had gathered along the highway that cuts through the city, with nowhere else to go. “The water got higher and had more strength.”
At least 90% of La Lima, home to 40,000 people, was under water on Wednesday. Thousands were still recovering from being trapped on their rooftops by Eta, causing nearby levees to fail and flooding neighbourhoods so fast there was no time to escape. Many had waited for days to be rescued.
Others died or disappeared in the rushing floodwaters. According to official tolls fewer than 100 people have died as a result of the hurricanes, but the water from Eta was yet to fully recede in many areas when Iota hit, and hundreds are still reported as missing. The government has been too overwhelmed to make an accurate count.
Heavily criticised for not ordering evacuations of at-risk areas before Eta, the government broadcast an order days in advance this time. Most residents in already flooded areas needed little persuasion to evacuate before Iota hit. However, in areas where the water hadn’t risen as high, some decided to risk it and stay behind.
“The water was rising to the rooftop,” said 25-year-old Ingrid Sanchez, who was rescued along with her two young children from on top of their house by firefighters, who reached them by boat. Thieves had ransacked many abandoned homes in the city since Eta, making Sanchez, who sold fruit outside her home, afraid of losing what little she had. “It’s really hard to get ahead in this country,” she added, holding her pyjama-clad children tight.
Getting ahead in Honduras will probably be much harder for years to come. The pandemic had already plunged the economy deep into recession. Preliminary estimates of the economic loss from Eta ranged from 10 to 20% of GDP, or roughly $2.5 to $5bn (£2-£4bn), and the Iota impact could double those numbers.
The valley surrounding San Pedro Sula – the country’s economic motor