November 6, 1998
By Ken Guggenheim
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Hondurans buried more of their dead and formed blocks-long lines for water and gasoline as officials struggled to feed and shelter a population still in shock from Hurricane Mitch.
An estimated 13,000 people were missing across Central America.
Medical workers buried 13 flood victims in a common grave Wednesday in Tegucigalpa, making signs of the cross and placing two wooden crosses among the plastic-shrouded bodies before a bulldozer plowed earth over them. The bodies were too decomposed to identify, officials said.
They were among the latest in a national death toll in Honduras estimated at 6,500, with as many as 1 million homeless. All told, Hurricane Mitch killed an estimated total of nearly 9,000 people in its rampage through Central America.
``We really don't know what the numbers are. There are places we haven't reached yet,'' said Col. Rene Osorio of Honduras' national emergency committee.
A revived Tropical Storm Mitch raced across the Gulf of Mexico toward South Florida and the Florida Keys Wednesday, buffeting the region with pelting rain, wind gusts up to 50 mph (80 kph) and tornadoes.
Tornado touchdowns were reported in Key Largo and Plantation Key, damaging a hotel roof and flipping a tractor trailer, local police reported. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
While officials previously estimated 7,000 dead in Honduras, President Carlos Flores said in a nationwide broadcast late Wednesday that some 6,500 people were confirmed dead and more than 11,000 were missing. Mitch destroyed more than 60 percent of the nation's infrastructure, he said, adding the government was seeking aid from Europe and the United States.
``We have receded many years'' in terms of national development, Flores said. ``The capital of the republic is in a precarious condition.''
Also Wednesday, the first foreign relief aid trickled into Honduras. Hondurans in Texas sent 15,000 pounds (6,803 kilos) of supplies Wednesday. The Mexican government and the U.S. military joined an airlift to towns cut off by nationwide flooding. But the obstacles to delivering that relief were daunting.
In northern Nicaragua, the grisly task of burying or burning bodies continued in massive mudslides near the Casitas volcano, where a crater lake collapsed Friday. About 200 more corpses were found there Wednesday, boosting the confirmed death toll there to 1,568. As many as 2,000 are feared dead.
Nicaraguan military spokesman Capt. Milton Sandoval warned that mines planted by guerrillas in the 1980s could surface in flooded areas. An estimated 100,000 mines were left behind.
More than 750,000 people lost their homes or possessions across Nicaragua, and 1,804 are listed as missing nationwide.
President Arnoldo Aleman - who turned aid distribution over to the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday after government relief efforts were criticized - said he would ``respect the will of local residents'' in deciding whether to declare the Casitas area a national cemetery.
A small magnitude-3.2 earthquake centered near the Casitas peak was reported Wednesday, while lava flows from the nearby Cerro Negro volcano appeared to have stopped Tuesday. No injuries or damage were reported in either incident.
El Salvador declared three days of national mourning for the 239 dead there. In Guatemala, 194 were reported dead and at least 77,900 had evacuated their homes. At least six people were killed in southern Mexico and seven people died in Costa Rica.
There was also no sign Wednesday of the 282-foot (85-meter) Windjammer Bare-foot Cruises yacht Fantome, which disappeared off Honduras with a British captain and a Central American crew of 30 more than a week ago.
Mitch hit the Honduran coast last week and parked itself there, dumping several feet of rain onto the poor nation before moving across the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico.
It left behind a stunning wake of death and devastation across Central America.
In Honduras, main highways connecting Tegucigalpa, a city of 800,000, to the rest of the country were cut, creating shortages of gasoline, drinking water and food in the hard-hit capital. Without gasoline, aid can't be delivered by truck. Nearly all aircraft are being used in continuing searches for survivors.
``The people's desperation is growing,'' said Andres Aguiriano Duarte, deputy commissioner of the emergency committee. ``This storm has broken the entire basic structure of our response capabilities.''
Honduran roads sustained dlrs 2 billion in damage, nearly a third of the country's gross domestic product and double the government's budget, said Finance Minister Gabriela Nunez.
In Tegucigalpa's city morgue - operating from a refrigerated trailer after flooding swept through the morgue building - anxious residents awaited word of missing loved ones.
Along the banks of the Choluteca River, residents shoveled muck from debris-packed homes and stores and sifted for whatever they could salvage. Bulldozers cleared streets of mounds of rock, mud and garbage.
All too often, there was nothing left to save.
``How do we continue, without water, without food, without sleep?'' said Yolanda Marvella Arraya, 35, who has spent nights outside on a soggy mattress next to the river since flooding destroyed her home.
Blocks-long lines formed at a few stations where gasoline was available, but rationed to a gallon (3.8 liters) per person.
``We've been waiting four hours,'' said Gladys Nunez, 50, two plastic containers in hand. ``It's been all nerves and tension.''
Citing food and other shortages, the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa authorized the voluntary departure of all dependents of embassy personnel. The U.S. Peace Corps, with about 207 members in Honduras, was pulling up stakes to Panama under a mandatory departure order.
Aid was eagerly awaited by the 4,000 people crowded into a shelter at a government-run trade school in Tegucigalpa, where many stunned families waited out the day on mattresses. Some mothers cried silently, trying to hide their grief from their children.
``I'm fighting to control my nerves,'' said a tearful Santos Antonio Perez, 57, whose family of 10 was uprooted by the storm. ``I lost all I have. This dress was given to me,'' she said, pulling at the thin fabric.
At least 300 people have been arrested in Tegucigalpa for violating the overnight curfew, police said. Officials say residents in some neighborhoods have formed vigilante groups to ward off looters.
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