Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | N | NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs

REGION TALLIES TOLL OF KATRINA; HONDURAS HARDEST HIT.

Article Excerpt
Central America and its neighbors in the hemisphere began to tally the toll of Hurricane Katrina almost from the moment the skies cleared over the US southern coast. The monstrous meteorological intrusion flashed its category-five credentials on approach, and then feinted to a four as it pasted the gulf states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama at 6:10 a.m. on Aug. 29. Central America worried for its people, its commerce, and its economic viability from the outset.

Central Americans who have immigrated to the US have tended to form communities with their co-nationals. For this reason Honduras can be said to be the most profoundly affected, because somewhere between 120,000 and 200,000 Hondurans settled in and near New Orleans. Three days after the hurricane hit, Jorge Vitanza, vice consul of Honduras in New Orleans, was desperately trying to find out where his citizens were. Early estimates were that 40,000 were forced from their homes. "Many of them were evacuated or left before it got bad, but we also know that there are still a lot of people in New Orleans, that many did not leave," said Vitanza.

Fearing deportation

It is a cruel turn of fate that many Hondurans in Louisiana were flushed there by Hurricane Mitch, the 1998 behemoth that ground...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!