Hurricane Eta Strikes Honduras

This week, Hurricane Eta delivered its blow in Central America. The center of the storm made landfall in Nicaragua and then tracked northward through the heart of Honduras. There was some wind damage, but the rainfall has wreaked devastation on the nation.

Note: all the photos here are from online sources. I have embedded some Facebook posts. If your browser does not show the Facebook posts, you can use the accompanying links to view the photos or videos.

Honduras is very mountainous, which means that all the rainfall gets concentrated into the valleys and rivers.

Mudslides and floods have washed out many roads and bridges.

The worst of the damage is in the far east and the northwest. This map is produced by the United Nations. More read means more damage.

Of course, many scores of families have been made homeless.

The Honduran spirit has pressed strong into rescue and rebuilding efforts already. There have been many people rescued by boat, helicopter, washtub, and other means.

In the eastern part of Honduras live primarily indigenous people. They raise all their own food. Missionary Air Group’s medical clinic is in this part of the country, painted dark read on the map above. In the village where our clinic is, the entire village lost their crops. The following video is a local resident showing where there used to be food growing. The single road into the community is flooded and impassable. (View post)

What can be done?

It hurts right now to not be able to be present and help. We are not positioned to be an active part of the aid effort in the short-term, but recovery from this disaster will last for many years. There are many others who are already mobilizing to rebuild.

In the meantime, please pray for the people of Honduras. Many have died, and many will continue to die. We pray that God would restore what the floods have destroyed and that many people would turn their hearts toward Him.