When Hurricane Mitch struck Central America last October, over 9,000 people were reported killed, over 9,000 missing and nearly 13,000 injured. In Honduras alone four out of every six people were affected by the disaster. A little over a month earlier, Hurricane Georges wreaked havoc in the Caribbean, while in January of this year a large earthquake hit Colombia with similarly devastating results. Remarkably, there is still no regional system for advance planning to deal with such natural disasters and to respond to them by rescuing people and providing them with food, supplies and equipment. The Problem Natural disasters are a very serious problem in the Latin American region, especially in the Caribbean and Central America.
Hurricanes occur every year in the Caribbean area and there are frequent earthquakes and flooding.
Hurricane Mitch was the worst natural disaster in this century. It struck Central America in the last days of October 1998 and persisted well into November. Honduras was hit hardest, but Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico also were affected. The dead and missing number in the thousands. The damage is in the billions of dollars.