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The Times 1998

Hurricane Mitch

Hurricane Mitch had struck land on the 27th

of

October and has caused a lot of devastation tothe landscape and the people. As Hurricane

Mitch tore across Central America, the most

deadly Atlantic storm in two centuries left a trail

of destruction in its wake.

The hurricane began in the Caribbean Sea and it

reaches land, passed over Central America before

dying out over Mexico. The main countries that

were in the hurricanes path were: Honduras,

Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize.

Whilst Mitch was one of the strongest Atlantic

hurricanes on record. It was actually the huge

amount of rainfall deposited by such a slow moving

storm which caused most of the damage. Most

rainfall recordinginstruments would have beendestroyed during the storm. However, Jon Hellin

from the Natural Resources Institute said some

records which survived indicated rainfall totals in

Southern Honduras of 25" in 36 hours and 10" in 6

hours between 29 and 31 October.

Effects Of The Hurricane

The effects of the hurricane were dreadful about10,000 are believed to have been killed, withNicaragua and Honduras bearing the brunt of thestorm. Development in some of the westernhemisphere's poorest countries has been set back byas much as 50 years.

The worst hit country was Honduras, in which thedeath toll estimate of 5,657deaths and more than8,000 people are still unaccounted for. The effectson the landscape were equally bad with, incessantrain flooded at least 50 rivers, knocking out bridgesand roads and inundating many towns in its path.

Ambassadors also from the region of where thehurricane hit warned a United Nations meeting inNew York that famine and disease - such as cholera

and malaria - were a grave threat to the people.

Help On Its Way

The Red Cross and countries including the UnitedStates, Britain, Spain and Norway have provided

some aid to the region..

The international community is offering help, withsome several million dollars coming from theUnited States and the European Union. USPresident Bill Clinton said his country hadprovided $2m in food, medicine, water and otheremergency relief supplies, and the European Unionhas offered more than $8m worth of aid.

Meanwhile UN World Food said that it haddistributed over 100,000 tons of food previouslyearmarked for development projects in Nicaraguaand was distributing food in Honduras.Additionally, UNICEF said it had provided

$20,000 worth of medicine to Nicaragua and wasshipping 500,000 sachets of oral rehydration salts,

used in cases of diarrhea and cholera.

However, Mr Ortega Urbina, who is theAmbassador of Nicaragua, says that this is notenough and that his country desperately needs moreassistance. The Nicaraguan ambassador, also said,

We will not have crops for the next six months so

there will be hunger

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Th Ti s 1998

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