End of Mission Report: United Nations Disaster Assessment & Coordination (UNDAC) Honduras Eta and Iota storms (November 11 – December 11, 2020)

1. Background Information on the emergency

1.1. Description of disaster

Eta storm rapidly intensified on November 1st, from tropical depression to Hurricane rapidly increasing its intensity reaching level 4 in the Caribbean Sea and impacted the north and central coast of Nicaragua on November 3.
Before landing, Eta rain bands affected Honduras with heavy rainfalls generating extensive floods during the first days of November. As it passed overland, it degraded to level 2, level 1 and then to tropical storm and tropical depression. When heading towards the Caribbean Sea again, after having crossed the territory of Honduras, it intensified again to tropical storm, crossing Cuba, and heading north, dissipating into the Gulf of Mexico. It severely affected Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala with heavy rains, floods, and landslides, affecting in less extent El Salvador, Costa Rica, southern Belize, and southern Mexico.
Few days later Iota started to organize as storm on November 13, hitting the Caribbean and Central America on November 16. It devastated Providencia and San Andres (Colombian islands in the Caribbean), entered through northern Nicaragua as hurricane level 5 through the same affected area by Eta, and passed over Honduras West-South territory weakening its intensity until it reached El Salvador, finally dissipating.
Thus, between November 1 and 6, Hurricane Eta caused strong impacts in various parts of Honduras, particularly in the Sula Valley in northern Honduras. The most affected departments were Cortés, Yoro, Santa Bárbara,
Copán, Colón and Gracias a Dios. The impact was very extensive in both rural and urban areas. Eta left behind significant environmental impacts, including large volumes of waste of various types, contaminated water sources and structural damage. Iota entered Honduras as a tropical storm, on November 17 through the south of the department of El Paraíso, Iota crossed the Honduran departments of Olancho, El Paraíso, Tegucigalpa, causing serious collateral effects in Gracias a Dios and the Sula Valley (Cortés, Santa Barbara and Yoro) caused by the rain bands.

1.2. Impact

The impact has been extensive territorially, with an emphasis on rural areas. It has affected a highly vulnerable population that had been suffering the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as previous processes of food insecurity, forced displacement and insecurity due to social violence.
All this has increased the negative effects on the exposed population in all departments of the country.
Damage to infrastructure in water and sanitation systems, wells, latrines, agricultural production, roads, and homes have been very serious. Health establishments, educational entities and other public and private buildings have also been affected. These impacts have had serious consequences, particularly on food security, health, and the protection of the rights of the affected people.
Widespread floods and landslides have caused damage in almost all 18 departments of Honduras. At least 745 communities out of 155 of the 298 municipalities in Honduras have reported varying degrees of damage.
The first response actions for the rescue of people at risk were immediate by the government through COPECO and national, departmental, and municipal authorities, as well as support for people in shelters, mainly with food and water. However, the size and geographic extent of the humanitarian crisis put existing national resources to the test. In particular, the conditions of the shelters are very difficult, and there are even more precarious situations of families who have not found alternatives and are in makeshift structures on public roads.
There are high risks and negative environmental and public health effects. The contamination of water sources and the management of solid waste, as well as the proliferation of vectors under current conditions in endemic areas of diseases such as dengue and malaria, among others, are problems that require urgent approach.
The limitations of access to many localities due to the interruption of roads and bridges have left thousands of families isolated, without the possibility of receiving timely humanitarian assistance.
The international cooperation agencies and organizations organized around the Honduran Humanitarian Network mobilized to assess the situation and provide humanitarian response, along with bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
However, the impact suffered is of great magnitude, with enormous logistical challenges, and very large gaps in the attention to humanitarian needs in the context of a scenario of high health, food security and protection risk.