ACT News Update

Guatemala 01/05

Geneva, October 11, 2005—Members of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International that are working in Guatemala will begin providing emergency assistance to people affected by heavy rains from Hurricane Stan.

Christian Aid, CIEDEG (Conference of Evangelical Churches of Guatemala), DanChurchAid, HEKS (Swiss Interchurch Aid), Lutheran World Federation and Norwegian Church Aid, working together as the ACT Guatemala Forum, are planning to provide food, water, medicines, clothes and hygiene kits to the affected population. The forum will focus its activities in the most affected communities where other humanitarian aid agencies are not responding to the emergency and will give priority to the most vulnerable groups - families that have lost their houses and all their belongings, children and the elderly. The forum will also facilitate the mobilization of local resources supporting the transport and distribution of the relief items collected at the local level.

The ACT Guatemala Forum works in partnership with Trocaire, the Catholic development agency in Ireland, and other local implementing partners. The forum has deployed assessment teams to the affected areas which are assessing the situation.

The ACT Coordinating Office is sending funds immediately to the ACT Guatemala Forum as an advance to a forthcoming appeal to enable forum members to provide emergency assistance. In the rehabilitation phase of the appeal, members in the forum plan to provide assistance in agriculture, housing, water and sanitation, psychosocial activities and environmental recovery.

The ACT Guatemala Forum’s mobilization is in response to the disaster situation that has been developing over the past several days across several Central American countries. Since October 1 heavy rains from Hurricane Stan have been lashing the whole Central America region. The rains are the heaviest experienced in the last four years. Hurricane Stan was a cyclone system that originated in the Pacific and converged with a low-pressure system in the Central America region causing the stationary rains.

The worst affected country in the region is Guatemala. The rains have caused extensive flooding and mudslides in the highlands and southwestern departments of the Pacific coastal area. Ten departments have been affected - San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Solola, Totonicapan, Suchitepequez, Rethaluhleu, Chimaltenango, Sacatepequez, Huehetenango and Escuintla.

The majority of the population in these departments is indigenous people who live in extreme poverty. Most of the affected areas are still isolated, and people are stranded without food. Due to the extreme deforestation, the continuous rains have caused more than 900 landslides. The most deadly landslides occurred last weekend in the Panabaj and Tyanchaj indigenous communities in the Solola department, where 1,400 people were engulfed by a massive mudslide four kilometers long. A rescue operation is in progress, but due to the size of the mudslide, it is feared that many of those who died will not be found.

According to the latest official reports, 652 people are reported dead, 384 missing and 99 injured in Guatemala. It is estimated that 93,893 people have been affected, 1,298 houses destroyed and 5,225 damaged; 359 communities are affected, and 118 remain cut off. Access to the affected areas is very difficult due to the flooding and the damage to the roads. No communications exists with the rural areas.

The bad weather conditions are hampering the delivery of humanitarian assistance. A new low-pressure system is expected this week that could again increase the intensity of the rains.

In El Salvador, the rains have also caused extensive flooding and more than 700 landslides. Sixty-five people are reported dead, and 46,500 have been evacuated. This emergency, combined with the October 1 eruption of the Santa Ana volcano, has caused the displacement of more than 54,000 people.

ACT members in El Salvador - Christian Aid, Lutheran World Federation, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and Salvadoran Lutheran Synod - have been providing assistance to the affected population through their local partners. They are planning to provide 2,000 people in the emergency phase with food, water, medicines, hygiene kits, mattresses, bed sheets and other relief items. They will also provide psychosocial assistance and support cleaning activities to avoid the outbreak of water-borne diseases. An appeal for El Salvador is in process.

Hurricane Stan has been causing havoc elsewhere in Central America.

The ACT Forum in Nicaragua reports that rains from Stan have caused heavy flooding on the Atlantic coastal areas, and the government has declared a state of emergency in the Waspan region. ACT member Christian Medical Action (AMC), which works in this region, has been responding to the situation and is coordinating with other agencies in the region. AMC is providing food and medicines to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases.

And the ACT Forum in Honduras has been closely monitoring the situation and is maintaining contact with the ACT Coordinating Office.