Over 500 people who lost everything in Hurricanes Eta and Iota set out from the San Pedro Sula bus station on Thursday, December 10, 2020. Calling themselves the “Caravana de los damnificados”, they intend to walk, hitch, ride or somehow make their way to Mexico, and then, to the United States. Other groups are organizing themselves to leave Honduras in January.
“Damnificado” in Spanish refers to victims of a disaster such as a storm, flood or fire, but the name is also evocative of the suffering experienced by people who have lost everything. Two record-shattering hurricanes affected 7.3 million people in the region, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Prior to the hurricanes, OCHA estimated that Honduras and Guatemala already had a combined 4.6 million people in need.
Hurricane Eta struck the northeastern corner of the Miskito Coast, just south of where Honduras meets Nicaragua, on November 3rd, 2020 as a Category 4 storm. Eta was followed two weeks later by Hurricane Iota, which measured Category 5, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Eta hit the same area, centered a mere 15 miles south.
