Honduras has been placed on alert due to the heavy rains that have fallen throughout the country and have claimed six lives as of Thursday, as well as landslides on the roads in several regions, announced the Permanent Commission for Emergencies (Copeco).
The latest victim was a three-year-old girl swept away today by a ravine in Cofradía, department of Cortés, in northern Honduras, according to the fire department.
The hardest hit region is the north, where Mayor Roberto Contreras has declared a state of emergency. Classes have been suspended at all levels, and there are fears that the Ulúa River, one of the country’s largest, will swell.
The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, has convened a meeting this Thursday of the different aid organizations, led by the National Risk Management System (Sinager), to deal with the emergency caused by the rains.
Castro sent the message on his Twitter account from New York, where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly, and said he would return to Honduras this Friday to coordinate “the response to the emergency caused by the floods and the hurricane threat.”
A total of 16 municipalities have declared flood alerts due to the ongoing rains. Most are located in the departments of Cortés, Yoro, and Atlántida in the north.
In light of the emergency situation, the Argentine government offered humanitarian assistance to help those affected by a series of landslides in the colony of Guillén in Tegucigalpa, according to the Argentine Foreign Ministry.
The Argentine Agency for International Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance-White Helmets (ACIAH) offered Honduras personnel specialized in the construction of “UNHCR houses,” as well as logistical personnel with skills in managing camps for affected people and shelters.