Light rain has triggered fresh land and mudslides in areas of Guatemala hit by Tropical Storm Stan, destroying additional bridges and hampering travel along the main north-south highway in the area. Road travel across the impacted region, which normally takes six hours, now takes up to 30. The number of dead and missing stands just shy of 1,500, with more than 140,000 people living in temporary shelters. Entire villages in some of Guatemala's poorest, most remote and populous regions were flooded or buried.
Mercy Corps staff took a leading role in international efforts to provide aid to victims of a disaster that some think could be worse than Hurricane Mitch, which devastated Central America in 1998. Between providing logistical support to the Guatemalan government and other international agencies and rushing food and medical aid to affected regions, Mercy Corps is tackling tough conditions that hampered aid in the wake of the storm. An estimated 1.5 million people live in the affected area.
Mercy Corps needs your generous donation to continue its response to this unfolding tragedy.
On Saturday, Mercy Corps shipped 16,000 pounds of corn meal to San Marcos for distribution in that hard-hit department (the Guatemalan equivalent of a province), enough to supply 1,500 families for 15 days. The day before, Mercy Corps staff welcomed a four-person team from Northwest Medical Teams and briefed them for duties that include running a temporary in a cold, mountainous area where an existing government healthcare center was destroyed in the storm.
With much world media attention focused on the earthquake in Pakistan and post-hurricane recovery in the United States, donations are desperately needed to fund emergency efforts in Guatemala. Rapid, effective relief efforts could prevent the kind of long-term disruption that followed Hurricane Mitch. In addition to killing an estimated 9,000 Central Americans, Mitch paralyzed the infrastructure of rural areas, slowing literacy, health and conflict-resolution efforts in a country still recovering from 30 years of civil war.
Active in Central America for more than a quarter century, Mercy Corps focuses on improving health care, developing local non-governmental organizations and resolving long-standing land disputes in rural Guatemala. Nearly all agency staff in the country are Guatemalan citizens.
Please donate now to assist in the immediate response to Tropical Storm Stan and longer-term progress toward a peaceful and prosperous Guatemala.