When Blanca Estela Rodriguez looks over the village of Guacamaya, she sees more than the physical damage from Hurricane Mitch. She sees health and medical problems that will plague Hondurans for months and years to come if she and her group of volunteers don't intervene.
Men shovel floodwater from a roadway in one part of town.
Rodriguez, a veteran relief worker, knows the stagnant water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes carrying deadly malaria. Patches of mud have dried and cracked into jigsaw puzzle pieces. She knows the dirt soon will become airborne, a noxious dust that can cause asthma and bronchitis. Barefoot children, shoes lost in the hurricane, run through mud nearby. She knows the muck holds tapeworms and other parasites waiting to infect the children.