Hurricanes Eta and Iota affected nearly half of the population of Honduras in November and caused damage to the country estimated at more than $ 1.8 billion, according to a report released Sunday by the government.
“The effects of the two storms translate into an impact of 45.6 billion lempiras (over 1.8 billion dollars) and a reduction of -0.8% of GDP growth in 2020”, estimates in this report the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepalc).
“At the humanitarian level, more than 4 million people are affected, of which 2.5 million are in need,” according to the document, while Honduras has 9.5 million inhabitants.
Hurricanes in particular hit the valley of San Pedro Sula, the second largest city and industrial capital of Honduras, which had been submerged by water.
These disasters come on top of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in this Central American country.
According to Cepalc, the private sector was the most affected by the cyclones, for 1.49 billion dollars, or 69% of the total damage, 31% concerning the public sector.
Eta and Iota had succeeded each other less than a fortnight apart following the same trajectory, leaving in their wake catastrophic floods, landslides and destruction in Central America and the Colombian Caribbean islands.
Honduras paid the heaviest price: nearly a hundred people died there in the first half of November.
The Honduran government said the report was drawn up at its request.
The World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations, among others, participated in its development.