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| SEEKING RELIEF | |
 November 5, 1998 
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Widespread flooding and massive mudslides brought on by Hurricane Mitch
have taken the lives of more than 5,000 people in Honduras. Phil Ponce
talks with Honduran President Carlos Flores about relief efforts in his
country.
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PHIL PONCE: Hondurans continue to dig out from the mud and destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch. In the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa one in three homes has been destroyed. Mitch has killed an estimated 9000 people throughout Central America, most of them in Honduras; 2000 are believed to have died in Nicaragua. In Honduras bodies are filling city morgues or being buried in mass graves. |
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| Hurricane Mitch's destructive path | ||||||||||||||
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Slightly larger than the state of Tennessee, Honduras is a country of about 6 million people. Many survivors are threatened by disease and a dangerously low food supply. Mitch may rank as the deadliest storm to hit Central America and possibly its worst natural disaster in 50 years. Mitch first threatened the region offshore over a week ago with 180 mile per hour winds. But by the time it had reached shore last Friday its winds had diminished. And the danger became the subsequent deluge of rain, which brought widespread flooding and massive mudslides. Communities virtually disappeared under a blanket of mud. Roads and bridges washed away. Major cities in Honduras were cut off from one another, like islands Ground transportation now can be impossible. Helicopters are the main way of getting survivors out of remote areas or to drop off food and supplies.
PHIL PONCE: Now to an interview with the President of Honduras, Carlos Flores. I spoke to him this afternoon from the presidential house in Tegucigalpa. Mr. President , thank you for joining us. PRESIDENT CARLOS FLORES, Honduras: Thank you, sir. PHIL PONCE: And, what is the latest information you have, Mr. President? |
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| President
Flores discusses the situation |
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PHIL PONCE: So there are still pockets in your country where you have simply not been able to reach people even now? PRESIDENT FLORES: We're trying to reach them by means of helicopters and by planes. But still there's some people that are not accounted for because it has been impossible for us to get to those places. But, of course, as we have been receiving some support in the last two days in terms of the logistics that we need, we are doing much better in terms of reaching those parts that have been isolated for the last week or so.
PRESIDENT FLORES: Yes, sir, there is, because this is a very mountainous country. The topography is in such a way that we have enormous amounts of rivers, mountains, and then valleys. So the hills that fall in the villages are constructed either in the sides of the rivers or very proximate to a river. So if you have a hill and you have rivers and you have a country that has been virtually flooded by the immense rainfalls that we have received, there's a lot of people that have been buried underground, and those, some of them account for the people that we cannot account for at this time. PHIL PONCE: Mr. President, what kinds of stories are you hearing from people in the countryside? PRESIDENT FLORES: What we can get, they have difficulty with the water. There's health problems, especially with the children. Of course, we have almost 20 percent of the population - it's in refugees - in shelters that we have made provisionally in schools in those cities. It's a very difficult time for them. Some have not received the food, but we're trying as hard as possible to make available the food that we have in this moment in our disposition in as far as we can reach, because there are still a lot of places that are practically inaccessible. PHIL PONCE: Would you say that's your biggest priority right now, getting food to people who are isolated? |
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| Getting the people food and medicine | ||||||||||||||
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PHIL PONCE: And you're doing that mainly with helicopters, as we understand it. Do you have enough helicopters? PRESIDENT FLORES: I wouldn't say enough but we have -- we have received just yesterday some helicopters from Mexico from some of the neighboring countries. And - in this time I would say we don't have what we need. But we have received at least the minimum necessary to do what's needed in this desperate time. PHIL PONCE: Do you expect to get as many as you will need to do the job fully?
PHIL PONCE: Mr. President, there have been promises of aid from around the world. How much of that aid has arrived already? |
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| International aid | ||||||||||||||
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PHIL PONCE: Mr. President, it's our understanding that most of the crops in your country were wiped out. Will you need food aid for sometime to come? PRESIDENT FLORES: Oh, yes, sir. 70 percent -- this is mostly an agricultural country. We -- the main crops are, of course, beans, rice, wheat, fruits, tomatoes, bananas, that's our main export, and shrimp - our basic food and means of providing for the food of the people are gone, I would say, in that 70 percent range. We have a little bit of existence because some of the places where we had some of the crops are still available, but in the short run we will start having problems in terms of food. Of course, right now, the urgency is in terms of prepared food, because in the refugees we do not have the facility in order to put the food that we have - even though if it's available in terms of the crop -- so we need prepared food that we can take already made to these people.
PRESIDENT FLORES: I would say in two ways. We're very -- it's almost like unbelievable what has happened. Hurricane Mitch hit for three consecutive days the North Coast while it was a hurricane. It degraded into a storm, a tropical storm, and we received rain for six consecutive days, maybe the amount of rain that we normally receive in two years. We have almost 20 percent of our population in shelters because they have lost their homes. Of course, there's, I would say, an attitude of shock. But also, there is a positive thing to this. It's the unity that we feel in the country in the aspiration and also the belief that we will carry through. PHIL PONCE: Mr. President, I thank you for joining us. PRESIDENT FLORES: Thank you, sir. |
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Mitch
hit Honduras and neighboring Nicaragua the hardest. They're two of the
poorest nations in the western hemisphere. Mitch also caused death and
destruction in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico before heading out
to sea and then to Florida yesterday and today. Private and governmental
relief is on its way from around the world. The European Union and several
European nations, including Spain and Germany have pledged more than
20 million dollars in humanitarian aid for Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico
has launched the largest airlift of food in its history. And the Clinton
administration said today the total US aid package, including military
assistance in rescue efforts, would come close to $80 million. That
includes food, fuel and medicine. 
PRESIDENT
FLORES: Right now I can tell you that the number of dead people surpasses
the 5,000 people that we have regrettably dead. We have almost 11,000
people wounded and close to 11,000 people that we cannot account for.
The number of people that are either refugees or that have been -- that
lost their houses, that have been affected in some way are more than
a million. It goes to a million four hundred people… And the infrastructure
is badly damaged. Most of the roads are inaccessible. We have about
90 major bridges that have either damages or are torn apart. The hurricane
has hit all of the country. It's a very difficult situation because
our water pipelines are down in the major cities. There are still areas
that are isolated. We have problems with fuel supply because northern
port and also our southern borders are inaccessible in terms of transportation.
Main electrical plants are down also, so we have problem of electricity
in several cities. And we're trying to access these isolated parts as
fast as possible finding provisional means to get to the people, some
that still need to be rescued because they're in danger of their lives.
PHIL
PONCE: Mr. President here in this country we hear reports of people
who are buried under debris and who are crying out for help. Is there
a lot of that going on? 
PRESIDENT
FLORES: Yes, and it's getting food and getting drinking water to our
major systems in the cities to carry the water and they were broken
because of the immense flooding that we had and the massive destruction
that was done to our infrastructure, getting drinking water and food
and, of course, medicine is our first priority.
PRESIDENT
FLORES: We're trying to reconstruct as fast as possible the main roads
or, if not, find other alternative ways that we can pass the roads,
because this is a very extensive country in terms of its territory,
in terms of the distances that we travel. The roads that get to several
villages are in a very bad situation because not everything has the
infrastructure of a paved road. We have a lot of dirt roads that have
been destroyed. So, of course, the only way to get in is by the means
of helicopters, and that's the way that we're trying to transport to
give relief and still save some lives as far as we can go. 
PRESIDENT
FLORES: Well, from the neighboring countries, like I tell you, we have
received aid from Mexico; we have received aid from Japan; some still
is coming. I have been informed that we're receiving aid from Spain,
that we're receiving aid from England. I was in contact with some of
the Latin American presidents, and they tell me that some aid is coming
from Venezuela, from Peru, from Colombia, so around -- we're receiving
some aid and we're receiving, I think, the basic things that we need
at this time in terms of medicine and food, and providing a little bit
of relief for the enormous amount of people that are affected by this
- by this phenomena.
PHIL
PONCE: Mr. President, how would you characterize the mood of your people?