Honduras: Hurricane Eta and Iota, Nov 2020

Situation overview

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

Eta began affecting northern Honduras as a Category 4 hurricane on 3 November. In three days, Eta downgraded to a tropical storm and then to a tropical depression, drenching much of Honduras and causing rising river levels, flooding, and landslides across the country.

The COPECO civil protection agency reports Iota has affected more than 860,700 people, in addition to the 3 million they report as affected by Eta. Nearly 190,000 people remain cut off, while the sheltered population between both storms is fast approaching 100,000. Iota’s impact in the Sula Valley has been as severe, if not worse, than Eta’s impact. In areas where access has been restored, the Government is seeking to begin clean-up and sanitation, as well as begin reactivating local economies. Response activity in Honduras is growing, with more than 650 response activities in all 18 departments, mostly in municipalities in Cortés in the Sula Valley. There is still concern over soil saturation, floodwaters that are still not completely receding, as well as damage to flood prevention infrastructure and dam capacities at or near 100 per cent ahead of seasonal cold fronts that stand to bring additional rain. OCHA in Honduras and an UNDAC deployment are actively involved in support for the UN Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Country Team (HCT), COPECO and other actors, providing support for coordination and information management.
A total of 25 foreign military assets have been deployed to support the government of Honduras in response to hurricanes Iota and Eta. (Update: 4 December 2020)

So far there is a total of roughly 4.6 million people affected by Eta & Iota together in Honduras, of which 1.78 million are children. There is still a considerable number of people in all Central America (646,943) that need to be reached. (Update: 14 December 2020)

Status of request for assistance

Official request for UNDAC deployment has been received from Honduras on November 6.