The emergency is still not over

According to the latest report of the Permanent Contingencies Commission (COPECO), 25 people have died because of the rains in Honduras during the last two weeks. The number of missing people is now eleven, there are 53,800 victims in the whole country, and in global 257,000 people have been affected in some way.

COPECO also reported 369 houses destroyed, plus 8,170 more damaged. Add to these 1,600 hectares of lost crop and 200 damaged roads throughout the country.

The emergency is still not over, since COPECO maintains a red alert in the regions more affected by the bad weather in the south, center, north, and west of Honduras.

According to the weather report, more bad weather is still ahead and the rains could continue for 10 more days.

Landslides have been reported on a daily basis in many areas of the country due to the excessive amount of water that has been absorbed by the land. Tegucigalpa alone has reported 7 deaths this week only due to landslides in the hills populated by very poor families.

Even though the mayor of Tegucigalpa, Ricardo Alvarez, and other authorities of the city have been insisting that the residents of high risk areas must evacuate immediately to save their lives, some of these poor people are unwilling to leave their only possessions to go to the shelters.

At least 50 families have refused to leave their homes in the neighbourhoods where the geographical fault “El Bambu” passes through, regardless of the obvious changes in the land and clear signs of danger.