TROPICAL STORM “AGATHA” REVEALS REALITY OF RURAL GUATEMALA
BELOW:

CONRED (the Guatemalan National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Reduction) provides this damage and destruction assessment, to date:
28,264 persons at further risk
128,149 persons affected
42,286 persons harmed
124,835 persons evacuated
64,383 persons in shelters
100 persons disappeared
87 persons injured
152 persons deceased
5,872 dwellings at further risk
21,927 dwellings lost or damaged
Rights Action has provided an initial $5000 in emergency response funds …, and will continue to support response and rebuilding work as much as we re able to raise the funds.  One of our main partner groups – in the past and today – is the CCDA.
= = =
EMERGENCY RELIEF PROPOSAL
From the CCDA (Campesino Committee of the Highlands)
“AGATHA” REVEALS REALITY OF RURAL GUATEMALA
INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND
In recent years, because of environmental degradation caused by large transnational companies, the Guatemalan countryside has suffered a number of serious natural disasters.
In 1998, Hurricane Mitch caused widespread loss of life and left many rural families in a state of dire poverty, bereft of their few meager belongings and unable to continue growing food to sustain themselves.
In 2005, before Guatemala even had a chance to recover from the disasters caused by Mitch, Tropical Storm Stan arrived, leaving thousands dead, communities completely wiped out and lands destroyed.  Hundreds of thousands of campesinos lost their crops, and, as well, they lost the few social services that had been provided for them.
[For many years, Rights Action has worked and supported the CCDA (Campesino Committee of the Highlands), particularly after the death and destruction left by “Mitch” (1998) and “Stan” (2005).]
Now, at the beginning of planting season (rain season = “invierno”), tropical storm “Agatha” has paid a surprise visit, revealing the reality in which rural Guatemala tries to survive.  Most of the destruction is centred in the area with the highest concentration of poor and extremely poor indigenous-campesino communities, such as the departments of Sololá, Quiché, Chimaltenango, Sacatepéquez, Suchitepéquez and Izabal.
However, the authorities do not appear to be interested in developing policies or passing laws that would eradicate this vulnerability and guarantee integral rural development.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DAMAGE CAUSED BY AGATHA
Tropical Storm Agatha hit Guatemalan soil on Friday night (May 28), bringing with it a very heavy rainfall which persisted and increased until 4pm on Saturday afternoon, causing human and material losses all across Guatemala, especially in the departments mentioned.
Communities experienced indescribable hardship; some places lost all communication with the outside and were left in total isolation, while people called out in desperation begging for help. There were mudslides and rivers overflowed. Within a few hours, streams turned into an avalanche of mud and 6 metre-diameter boulders. The mudslides uprooted and carried away large areas of forest, leaving in its wake a one-kilometer wide area of devastation. Communities were left without services: piped water systems were damaged, electricity poles came down and water treatment tanks were destroyed. As well, our community septic tank latrines were destroyed, making us vulnerable to gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases.  On top of all this, large areas of crops and parts of the roadways were destroyed.
GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGE TO DATE
In recent years, the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) has been putting risk management and disaster prevention procedures in place.
As a result, communities responded immediately to instructions from the team and this prevented further damage and human suffering.
The National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) has provided the following statistics on the damage caused by Agatha throughout Guatemala:
28,264 persons at risk
128,149 persons affected
42,286 persons harmed
124,835 persons evacuated
64,383 persons in shelters
100 persons disappeared
87 persons injured
152 persons deceased
5,872 dwellings at risk
21,927 dwellings damaged
Given that most of the damage occurred in the above mentioned departments, the CCDA is working in these areas and has taken the following action:
1. 10 shelters have been set up in the following communities:
a. 4 in the communities of Quixayá, San Lucas Tolimán, Sololá
b. 1 in the town centre of the municipality of San Lucas Tolimán, Sololá
c. 1 temporary shelter in la Colonia Pampojilá, San Lucas Tolimán, Sololá.
d. 1 in Agua Escondida in the municipality of San Antonio Palopó
e. 1 in the town centre of the municipality of Patulul, in the barrio El Triunfo.
f. 1 in Patzún, Chimaltenango.
g. 1 shelter in San Jorge, the municipal centre of the department of Sololá.
2. Help was provided to a total of approximately 4500 persons, including children, youth, single women, adults and senior citizens – women and men.
3. Search and rescue teams were formed to remove belongings from the rubble
4. 2 teams were formed to provide food in each shelter
5. First-aid medical assistance and primary-care psychological assistance.
6. 3 transport teams were formed to help people go and come from communities
ON-GOING EMERGENCY RESPONSE WORK -- Therefore, to help us carry out our work, we REQUEST:
a) Support to set up storing centres in towns, for storage of the following items:
a. Food supplies
b. clothing
c. Medicine
d. mattresses
e. Coats
f. Blankets
g. Disposable Diapers
h. Eating utensils
i. Tents
j. Clean water (throughout the country)
k. TIGO card code, email ccda_cafe_justicia@yahoo.com
b) Human Resources:
a. Doctors
b. Nurses
c. General volunteers
c) Equipment:
a. Generating plants
b. Double traction vehicles
c. All terrain vehicles
d. Mechanical saws
e. Galvanized and PVC pipes for installing new drinking water systems
f. Tools for clearing (picks, shovels, crowbars, back-hoe loader tractors)
g. Industrial stoves
h. Rescue equipment (lamps, tents, boots, helmets, ropes and cords, etc.)
i. Basic equipment for construction of latrines in shelters.
j. Tanks for transporting and storing water
k. Radio communication equipment with a minimum band of 20 mile radius
l. Pneumatic water pumps
d) Cash donations can be made to Account number: CCDA-BENEFICIO, 00-5800634-9, Banco AgroMercantil.
Sololá, June 1, 2010
Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA)
= = =
TROPICAL TROPICAL STORM AGATHA – DEATH TOLL RISES TO 150, By Sylvia Holt on June 3, 2010, http://apexnewsnetwork.com/22165/tropical-storm-agatha-death-toll-rises-to-150/
Tropical storm Agatha has caused havoc in the cities and villages of Guatemala. Villagers are trying to dig out the dead bodies from the muddy trails due to the landslide. These landslides are caused by the season’s first tropical storm of 2010, Agatha. According to an official report from Guatemala, around 150 people are confirmed dead and 100 are still missing.  The flooding and landslides have caused a state of emergency declaration in Honduras.
Approximately 60 people are reported dead in the Chimaltenango province west of Guatemala alone. Around 120,000 people have been evacuated from Guatemala till date. These are just the initial numbers, as the rubble is yet to be cleared, death toll might increase.
Tropical Storm Agatha has slowly dissipated, and is now just heavy rains.  Meterologist expect the heavy ran to last for several more days.  Once the weather has moved out, officials expect the death and injury tolls to increase.
= = =
STORM AGATHA BLOWS A HOLE IN GUATEMALA CITY
HUNDREDS DEAD AS TORRENTIAL RAIN SWEEPS CENTRAL AMERICA. SINKHOLE IN GUATEMALA SWALLOWS THREE-STOREY BUILDING
Peter Walker, The Guardian, Tuesday 1 June 2010
Tropical Storm Agatha swept across Central America yesterday, bringing torrential rain that killed more than 100 people and opened a 60m-deep sinkhole in Guatemala City which reportedly swallowed up a three-storey building. The first named storm of the 2010 Pacific season dumped more than a metre of rain in parts of Guatemala, also hitting El Salvador and Honduras. At least 113 people were reported killed, with around 50 missing in Guatemala alone as rescue workers searched through the rubble.
The 30m-diameter sinkhole opened up in a northern district of Guatemala City, with residents blaming the rains and substandard drainage systems. Local reports said one man was killed when the building was swallowed. In 2007, three people died when a similar sinkhole appeared in the same area.
Guatemala was the worst affected country, with a confirmed death toll of 92, although that is likely to rise when rescuers reach remote villages. Almost 100,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Nine people were confirmed killed in El Salvador and 12 in Honduras.
"I've got no one to help me. I watched the water take everything," Carlota Ramos told Reuters outside her mud-swamped brick house in Amatitlán, a town near the Guatemalan capital.
= = =
TO MAKE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS for “Agatha Relief”
for community based organizations doing emergency relief work, make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:
*  UNITED STATES:  Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
*  CANADA:  552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm

--