CARLSBAD, CA – 250 are reported dead across Latin America and over 150,000 evacuated from their homes after Hurricane Stan struck the region earlier this week.

Landslides and flooding have already killed more than 150 in Guatemala, 65 in El Salvador, 14 in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica, and 17 in Mexico. Continuing rains risk causing mud flows and further flooding in the region.

World Emergency Relief’s global family is responding to this disaster. WER’s Honduras-based response team sent Honduran firefighters, medical relief workers, and has already distributed tents and relief aid along the El Salvador-Honduras border. WER’s London office is in close contact with project partner Cosecha Trust in Tecpan, Guatemala, where a landslide this week demolished more than thirty houses and a large school. Rescue workers have already pulled more than forty bodies from the wrecked buildings, and many more are missing. Thousands of people have been evacuated from the area.

Martin and Ruth Baldwin from Cosecha Trust report power is out and communication down, making many people unable to contact families and friends on the outside. “The worst is there are missing children and parents are distraught wondering if they have been caught up in the rescue centre or are dead.”

Scores of houses in Tecpan have been washed away. Of those that are still standing, hundreds have been damaged and may have to be demolished in this remote mountain village. The main roads have been reduced to muddy rivers, seriously hampering the work of rescue teams attempting to reach people trapped in their homes.

With mountain roads washed away, villages remain cut off from emergency aid. Local first-response teams are stretched to the limit dealing with this disaster, while hoping for international aid. “At present there doesn’t seem to be any coherent, coordinated relief effort. Here, in such a poor area, we don’t have the resources, equipment or international agencies readily available.” Martin Baldwin reports.

Looting in the area has led many villagers to return to their houses, despite the treacherous conditions. Some of those returning are finding nothing more than mud and water in the place of where their home once stood.

World Emergency Relief works throughout Central America with numerous local agencies. Emergency resources will be delivered to stricken areas by WER-US following assessments by our local partners into the fast-changing situation. WER’s CEO, Joel MacCollam, indicates that supplies could be on their way as early as the beginning of next week.