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Here’s What You Can Do to Help Central Americans Devastated by Hurricane Eta

By Araceli Cruz

November 12, 2020

These five organizations are raising funds to help people in Central America affected by the hurricane.

Tropical Storm Eta is making its way up the Eastern Seaboard after cutting across central Florida this morning, but it was Central America that Hurricane Eta ravaged last week. 

Eta was a Category 4 hurricane when it hit Central America, causing mudslides and flooding. At least 100 people are dead throughout Central America, and that number is expected to increase. In Guatemala alone, at least 100 people were buried. Currently, hundreds of thousands, including tens of thousands of children, are displaced from their homes in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala, CNN reports.

RELATED: New Investigation Could Reveal True Death Toll From Hurricane María in Puerto Rico

“My mother country, Honduras, has been devastated by Hurricane Eta,” activist and actress América Ferrera wrote on Instagram. “This is the aftermath of the storm from Southern Mexico to Panama. Millions of people throughout the region have lost everything. Hundreds of thousands of families and children are now without access to essential health services in the midst of an uncontrolled pandemic. It’s absolutely heartbreaking and our help is desperately needed.”

A Rising Death Toll

Authorities from Panama to Mexico are still surveying the damages from flooding and landslides following days of torrential rains. The confirmed death toll is expected to rise.

In Guatemala, where 15 people are confirmed dead, but at least 109 are missing, search teams began pulling the first bodies from a landslide in San Cristóbal Verapaz, but the work was slow, and help was trickling in. Teams first had to overcome multiple landslides and deep mud just to reach the site where officials have estimated some 150 homes were devastated.

In the country’s worst-hit village of Quejá, at least five bodies have been pulled from the mud. The indigenous community of about 1,200 residents consisted of simple homes made of wood and tin roofs clinging to the mountainside. 

Last week in Honduras, police said six more bodies had been found, bringing that country’s toll to 13. Two adults and two children were found after excavations in a mudslide that occurred Wednesday in Gualala’s township, and two boys aged 8 and 11 died in another mudslide in El Níspero, Honduras.

Earlier, residents found the body of a girl buried in a landslide in the mountains outside Tela’s north coast city. In the same area, a landslide buried a home with a mother and two children inside it, according to Honduras Fire Department spokesman Óscar Triminio. He said there was also a 2-year-old girl killed in the Santa Bárbara area when she was swept away by floodwaters.

Organizations Helping Communities in Central America After Hurricane Eta

Operación Frijol

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHaxS_irqWw/

Bethenny Frankel’s B Strong

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHVeFvsjeD8/

Humanity and Hope United

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHgBpeOFZyp/

American Red Cross

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHbPmhQj3d7/

GlobalGiving

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHePSxBD19C/

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Author

  • Araceli Cruz

    Araceli is Copper Courier's social media manager. Her past work has been published in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, Mic, The Cut, Zora, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and others.

CATEGORIES: COMMUNITY | Uncategorized
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