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SearchNatural disasters hit Latin America
07-06-2010
At the end of May, several countries in Latin America were hit by natural disasters. We can report our board member, Ms. Judith Castañeda, and our colleagues and their families in these countries avoided injury. The country offices immediately began monitoring the effects of these natural disasters on our project partners.
On the evening of May 27th, the Pacaya Volcano, located 20 miles south of Guatemala City erupted, covering Guatemala City and surrounding areas with up to three inches of volcanic ash and sand.
On May 28, the Tungurahua volcano erupted violently producing an ash plume rising about 10km above the crater and drifting south-west to the Coast Region of Ecuador. The worst affected areas were rural towns in the provinces of Tungurahua and Chimborazo.
The Oikocredit Ecuador country office has been in contact with our current partners. It is expected that some clients of those partners - COAC Ambato, COAC Mushuc Runa, COAC. San José, COAC San Antonio and COAC Kullki Wasi - will be affected. Agriculture activities, livestock and crops have been damaged and economic losses for these people are inevidable.
Hurricane Agatha also struck Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. In Honduras around 10,000 people have been moved to secure facilities since the main cities affected were in the eastern part of the country. The situation in Honduras is similar to El Salvador. Hurricane Agatha affected around 15,000 people in Tegucigalpa. Last week the country offices focused on monitoring their partners, which were doing well and helping their communities. The Honduras office continued visiting new projects in the western area of the country.
Guatemala was hit the worst by the Hurricane causing floodings and damaging roads. In spite of this, the local Oikocredit team contacted our partners to express their concern and investigate the situation. Regretfully, one of our partners (FEDECOCAGUA) suffered damages in its main coffee production facilities because surrounding hills gave in and the river overflowed. The electricity energy generator was buried underground. Rocks and mud covered the main storage room damaging a small portion of coffee ready for delivery. The southern cooperatives (Escuintia and Santa Rosa) also lost their stored coffee. Other project partners were safe or suffered minor damage.
Through our network of local offices, Oikocredit will continue monitoring its project partners closely. Our prayers are with the people in these Latin American countries, especially those directly affected.
These press releases and other disclosures of news and events are correct to the best of our knowledge and belief, based on the information available at the time of publication. These may contain certain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. All press releases are current only as of the date specified. Oikocredit International disclaims any obligation to update or correct press releases as the result of financial, business or any other developments occurring after the specified date.
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