We knew we would be able to make a difference. They have already started to. The task before them is immense. With 70 percent of the country's infrastructure wiped out, hundreds of thousands made homeless and two-thirds of the nation's crops destroyed, rebuilding may take decades. Development has been set back 50 years, said President Carlos Flores.
Some dangers are immediate.
Floods destroyed food warehouses and overwhelmed the sewer systems. With little potable water, the risk of cholera grows daily. Epidemics and famine threaten. We have before us a panorama of death. The nation's schools and churches have become refugee shelters, including nine Episcopal churches by the first weekend of November.