Twenty percent of Honduras’s Population Impacted by Hurricane Eta

“When the storm came, we couldn’t do anything. We just saw how it destroyed everything we had worked so hard for.”

Magdalena says there was little time to prepare before Eta hit, as news alerts were slow to reach them. She says her family only realized the severity of the storm when the nearby river started to overflow. Magdalena’s family is part of a network of 25 producers in the area called El Achiotal Aquaculture Association. The storm flooded their ponds, killed scores of fish and destroyed 90% of the pipes that funnel water from the river to the lagoons. They are still assessing the full damage to their businesses.

“Without oxygen in the water the fish died in days,” Magdalena says. “That is why we had to react quickly, investing all we have saved in the fish’s food. We went into debt to avoid losing the entire harvest. It is difficult to recover the project when there are so many debts.”

CARE Honduras is focusing its emergency response efforts on providing food, shelter, essential items like blankets, tarps and kitchen kits, water and sanitation support, and protection services to particularly vulnerable groups such as women and girls, who now find themselves in cramped communal shelters.

“When these disasters happen, we cannot take risks, we only see how nature wreaks havoc and we pray that it leaves something standing to be able to survive with what is left,” Magdalena says.

CARE Honduras is monitoring the Category 5 Hurricane Iota that is quickly approaching the area. People in the Region Valle of Sula are now been forced to evacuate as Iota is expected to impact the same vulnerable communities like Magdalena’s affected by Eta less than two weeks ago.