Hurricane Eta Wreaks Death and Shocking Devastation in Central America

Hurricane Eta unleashed torrential rains and catastrophic flooding in Central America, killing at least 18 people and turning streets into waist-high water channels. Death and destruction was reported in areas across Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica and as far south as Panama.

A man reacts to damage from Hurricane Eta in Puerto Cabeza Nicaragua

Families waded through flooded streets in the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, while cars sat nearly submerged in parts of the central Guatemalan city of San Pedro Carcha. “The situation is serious, it’s shocking and needs to be dealt with professionally, quickly,” Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said, pointing to reports of people stranded or stuck on roofs of flooded homes.  Damage and destruction had spread across the “vast majority” of Honduras and speedboats and helicopters would be sent to rescue people in inaccessible areas, Hernandez said.

Across wide swathes of Central America, high winds and heavy rain have damaged homes, roads and bridges, forcing thousands to take cover in shelters.  One unidentified woman on Honduran television made a desperate plea for help in a neighborhood of La Lima, a municipality on the southeastern flank of San Pedro Sula.  “I’ve got five children on the roof of my house and nobody’s helping me to get them down,” she said.

Weary residents make their way through a flooded street in La Lima, Honduras

One of the fiercest storms to hit Central America in years, Eta struck Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 miles per hour before weakening as it moved inland and into neighboring Honduras.  By Thursday, authorities confirmed at least four deaths in Guatemala and seven in Honduras. Media in Nicaragua also reported two miners had died in a mudslide.

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez ordered the army to mobilize helicopters and boats to evacuate inundated areas.  In the north of the country, many people were forced to take refuge on the roofs of their houses as floodwaters rose, relief agencies said. Three thousand people had already been evacuated from the path of the storm.  

Two children, an eight-year-old and a toddler of 11 months, died when a mudslide swept their home away in the northwestern department of Santa Barbara.  “A house was buried, leaving as a result two minors dead,” police said in a statement.  Two other children were killed in similar circumstances in the country’s south, authorities reported Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a 71-year-old American and his 51-year-old Costa Rican wife died when a landslide buried their home in the southern canton of Coto Brus, on the border with Panama. Their bodies were recovered by emergency workers.

The four people killed in Guatemala were swept away in mudslides as rain-saturated hillsides gave way.  They included two children, aged two and 11, who were killed when their home was swept away in the village of Los Triagles, in the country’s northern Quiche department, according to David de Leon of the Disaster Reduction Coordinating Committee.  Another person died in a village in the same region, where two other people are reported missing.  The fourth victim died in Chinaulta, just north of Guatemala City.

A man and a woman also died in flooding in Panama’s Chiriqui province, near the Costa Rica border, authorities said.  

There was some rare good news back in Honduras, where  60 fishermen who initially went missing on Tuesday returned after taking shelter on cays until they were reached by boats bringing food and fuel, said community leader Robin Morales.  Calling their escape a “miracle”, Morales said a man among them presumed dead from a heart attack also made it back. 

Eta is expected to return to sea and regain momentum as a tropical storm, reaching Cuba and southern Florida in the coming days.