Guatemala: Hurricane Eta and Iota, Nov 2020
Situation overview

Situation updates about hurricanes Eta and Iota in Guatemala are provided in this discussion.

With maximum wind speeds of 140 miles per hour, Hurricane Eta—a Category 4 hurricane—made landfall over Nicaragua’s North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region on November 3, resulting in river overflows, widespread flooding, and damaging landslides.

Guatemala’s CONRED civil protection agency reports that the cumulative effects of Eta and Iota have directly affected 1.5 million people, driving 31,400 people to official shelters and another 219,900 to unofficial shelters. Alta Verapaz and Izabal were the most affected departments, with response partners currently focusing the bulk of their actions in those two departments. Water levels in some areas remain as high as 2 meters, with little expectation of fully receding in under two weeks, and cold fronts are expected to bring added rain, posing continue threats. OCHA in Guatemala and a newly arrived UNDAC team are assisting coordination and information management in the priority departments of Izabal and Alta Verapaz through their departmental emergency operations centres (EOCs), as well as supporting the UN Resident Coordinator. (Update: 1 December 2020)


In total, almost 2.5 million people have been affected in Guatemala only, of which almost a million is made of children. (Update: 14 Dec)
Status of request for assistance
OCHA/Emergency Response Section issued an M0 message to the UNDAC network in case a request for an UNDAC deployment will come in
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