Honduras Devastated by Hurricane Iota on the Heels of Eta

Iota made landfall in northwestern Nicaragua earlier this week as a Category 5 hurricane — the year’s biggest Atlantic storm — and left behind “catastrophic” damage, the government in Managua said.  The giant storm devastated much of the area spared by Hurricane Eta merely two weeks ago.

Hurricane Iota caused significant damage across Honduras, including to the country’s largest airport.  Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport near San Pedro Sula was submerged by water, and local media reports that it may not reopen for passengers until mid-December at the earliest.

Aerial view of the flooded Ramon Villeda Morales airport in San Pedro Sula, 240 km north of Tegucigalpa, after the passage of Hurricane Iota.

Leo Castellón, the superintendent of the company that operates the airport, said the facilities were under more than two meters of water and largely inaccessible due to flooding across the Sula Valley.

Authorities were prioritizing cleaning the runway in order to allow for the arrival of humanitarian flights, Castellón told El Heraldo. Evaluation and repairs to the passenger terminal will come later. Until the airport can be repaired, travelers should instead fly via Toncontín International Airport near Tegucigalpa, about four hours away by road.

Iota caused at least 44 deaths across the region and significant infrastructure damage in Honduras, Nicaragua and on Colombian islands.  Initial estimates by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, put the number of people affected by the hurricane at 4.6 million across the impoverished region, including 1.8 million children.