Hurricane Eta ravages Central America
Guatemalans inspecting the damage caused by the hurricane as the human toll is also increasing.
Johan ORDONEZ / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
In total, Hurricane Eta left nearly 200 dead or missing and thousands of people affected in seven Central American countries.
Guatemala, the most affected country so far, has at least 150 dead or missing.
Now weakened in a tropical depression, it should strengthen to threaten from Sunday, November 8 Cuba, Jamaica and Florida.
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The indigenous village of Queja in northern Guatemala was almost completely buried in a landslide.
"
We estimate that between dead and missing the (still) unofficial figures amount to more or less 150 dead,
" Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said at a press conference.
Floods and cut roads prevented rescue teams from reaching the village on Thursday, but a military squad got there on Friday and began searching for survivors in the rubble, he said.
Seguiremos con las labores de rescate de cada familia y cada guatemalteco.
Unidos saldremos de esta emergencia.
# FuerzaGuate # NadieSeQuedaAtrás pic.twitter.com/59p2YnJm6S
Alejandro Giammattei (@DrGiammattei) November 6, 2020
Cuba and Florida threatened
Hurricane Eta, which made landfall on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua on Tuesday as a powerful category 4 hurricane with winds of 140 km / h, gradually weakened as it passed Nicaragua and Honduras.
Its torrential rains also affected Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, as well as Mexico, where the authorities of Chiapas, one of the poorest states in the country, announced the discovery of at least twenty victims. , mostly washed away by flooding streams.
The hurricane is expected to hit Cuba on Sunday, according to the US Hurricane Monitoring Center NHC.
It also threatens southeastern Mexico, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and southern Florida.
Two dead in Nicaragua, 8 in Honduras
In Nicaragua, dozens of disaster victims roam the rubble of their homes that were submerged by torrential rains and their tin roofs swept away by hurricane squalls.
The port city of Bilwi, the main city in the north of Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, is isolated from the rest of the country by the flooding of the coastal river Wawa, which can only be crossed by boat.
The hurricane killed two workers at a gold mine, but authorities have not drawn up a full toll of the damage, Nicaraguan Vice-President Rosario Murillo admitted.
Eight people have died in Honduras, buried in collapsed homes, or drowned in flooding, and there could be more casualties, warned Marvin Aparicio, head of the Copeco Disaster Commission.
The valley of San Pedro Sula, the second city and industrial capital of Honduras, was still submerged in water on Friday and more than 7,000 people were evacuated and housed in shelters.
Residents of the agglomeration have been launching desperate appeals for help on social networks and television channels since Thursday.
“
We need a boat or a helicopter.
We have had nothing to eat for two days,
”said a resident stranded in the Ciudad Planeta neighborhood, near San Pedro Sula airport.
(With AFP)
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