Disaster Squared

What a tragic past few days. I feel horrible right now. Physically, I'm fine as far as I can tell (although, let's face it, I'm surrounded by large hills and major volcanoes, so there could be a landslide at any moment). But, I'm so very sad about everything that's going on around me. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt such a sense of tragedy. Guatemala has no resources. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Then a major eruption of Pacaya volcano on Thursday night coated the city in ash, shutting down the airport and costing valuable tourism dollars. The whole city shut down, including schools. The president declared a state of emergency for 15 days. But that's nothing. Three people lost their lives. Almost 1,000 homes were lost in the eruption and about 2,000 people were displaced. Reports from Guatemala City said that parts were buried under up to 5 inches of ash.

I have to admit, with all measure of embarrassment, I was a little amused and amazed when this happened. I had JUST arrived and a volcano was erupting? Are you kidding me?! A volcano erupted and the project was closed and I could’t work with the kids. It all just seemed so ridiculous. Of course, it’s horrible to laugh at something like this. Perhaps that was my way of dealing with what otherwise would have been a major freak out. I gave up my apartment, my unemployment check, my whole world to come down here. Was everything gone in an instant?

Then the world really fell apart. Pacaya wasn’t even done with the major eruption when tropical storm Agatha hit in full force on Saturday morning. Guatemala’s infrastructure is extremely precarious. Roads are in poor shape. Houses in rural areas are often made of nothing more than tin erected on a hillside, with floors of dirt. Many of Guatemala City’s poorest neighborhoods have houses of the same. Most of the people evacuated from Pacaya are in makeshift shelters.

Entire communities are being swept off of hillsides. Already 74 people have died in Guatemala alone (9 more in El Salvador and 2 in Honduras). The ground is so beyond saturated that there's nowhere for the rain to go. And, yet, it's getting stronger by the minute. One entire neighborhood in the capital was obliterated by a mudslide yesterday; 4 were confirmed dead and another 11 missing. They couldn't even continue searching for them because the power was out at nightfall.

That’s not the worst of it. Guate (Guatemala City) lies in a fairly deep valley. From what we’ve heard here in Antigua, some areas of Guate are under water chest-deep. Not only was up to 30 inches of rain unleashed on some areas, but that rainwater was all funneled down into the city, where drainage systems were clogged with ash. In Guate, a sinkhole the size of a building opened up. An entire intersection literally just collapsed. A highway bridge into the city was swept away by floodwaters. Parts of roads have been carried off into the ether or buried under landslides. Entire communities are without power, and will be so for at least several days. The storm has delayed the reopening of La Aurora airport through at least Tuesday. Even if there were supplies coming in, with roads out, it will be incredibly difficult to get supplies to the hardest hit areas.

This all only a minor inconvenience for me, especially when compared to what some people are suffering as a result of the compounded fury of nature. I just can't stop thinking about all of our families sitting in their homes with tin sides and a dirt floor and wonder how they can possibly make it through. Hopefully we will be able to get back to work with our youth and families soon. The volunteer bus can’t travel yet because of the roads, but they will try to open tomorrow and see if there are enough staff and volunteers who can make it from the city to keep the program running. My project is in the very north of the city. This provides a big measure of relief, as at least they weren’t impacted much by the ash. From what I’ve heard, our families and youth are okay, but it seems so incredible to me that this could be true. A combined total of almost 80,000 people were displaced because of these disasters, probably thousands more than would have been affected if they had happened separately. In an area with so few resources already, I can’t imagine what it will look like to put the pieces together again.

As I’ve said, Guatemala is already strapped for resources. This is going to dearly cost the tourism industry here, as you can’t vacation in a country that is currently impassable. The effects of Pacaya and Agatha are also estimated to have serious effects on the coffee crop, which is Guatemala’s chief export. The lack of reliable technology and the loss of infrastructure over the past few days means there is no reliable estimate of that that loss will look like. Not only will Guatemala have to spend a fortune cleaning up, rebuilding and tending to those who are displaced, it has sustained a serious loss of revenue.

My heart aches for Guatemala. If you can find a silver lining in all of this, I’m just grateful I can be here to lend whatever support I can to cleaning up and moving on from all of this mess.