By Danilo Valladares GUATEMALA CITY, Oct 16, 2010 (IPS) – Guatemala needs to take steps to prepare for even worse problems of hunger in 2011, caused by climate change and farmers’ heavy dependence on a few basic crops like corn and beans, experts warned on the occasion of World Food Day, celebrated Saturday. “The phenomenon [...]
Category Archives: Natural Disasters
Article: Guatemala: UN Meeting Opens To Spur Recovery
Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 5:32 pm Press Release: United Nations An international conference opened in Guatemala today to help in the reconstruction of the Central American country after devastating volcanic eruptions and torrential rains, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledging full United Nations support. “The United Nations system has been deeply engaged in the humanitarian response [...]
Article: Guatemala Rebuilds After Volcano
GUATEMALA CITY, Oct. 12 (UPI) — The global community is working hand-in-hand with Guatemalan authorities to help rebuild after a deadly May volcanic eruption, a U.N. official said. Tropical Storm Agatha wiped out roads and infrastructure after it killed more than 150 people in May. The emergency was compounded by the violent eruption of the [...]
Article: Guatemala Hillside Collapse Kills 2 Children
The following excerpt is from an October 3, 2010 article published by the Latin American Herald Tribune. To read the article in its entirety, click here. GUATEMALA CITY – Two Indian children were buried alive in Guatemala when a hillside collapsed during the heavy rains of the last few hours and fell onto their poor [...]
Article: Central America Braces for Tropical Storm Matthew
The following excerpt is from a September 24, 2010 article published by the BBC. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. …Central America has been battered by months of heavy rain, which began in May with Tropical Storm Agatha. Forecasters say Matthew will strike southern Belize by Saturday evening before crossing into [...]
Article: Malnutrition Starves Children, Economies of a Lifetime of Potential
The following excerpt is from a September 22, 2010 article published by WorldVision. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. Each dollar spent on micronutrient programs targeting children aged less than two years means gains of more than US$17 in terms of fewer deaths, better health and increased future earnings. Although the [...]
Article: Guatemala Cancels Landslide Rescue
The following excerpt is from a September 7, 2010 article published by Al Jazeera. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. Officials in Guatemala have called off the search for 15 people missing after deady landslides, fearing fresh avalanches of mud after the heaviest rains in 60 years. The decision on Tuesday [...]
Flooding Update (Sept 5): Mayan Families – Lake Region
This update is from the blog of Mayan Families (www.mayanfamilies.org). To read the update in its entirety, please click here. The shoveling has begun again. It rained without stopping until yesterday, daybreak! We really thought it would never end. People, still traumatized from Agatha evacuated their houses, and over 160 people were still living in [...]
Article: Heavy Rains Devastate Guatemala
The following excerpt is from a September 5 article published by the BBC. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. A state of emergency has been declared in Guatemala, where days of heavy rain have caused widespread flooding and landslides. At least 20 people have been killed, including at least 10 who [...]
Article: Rains Damage More Than 100 Homes in Guatemala
The following excerpt is from an August 24, 2010 article published by the Latin American Herald Tribune. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. GUATEMALA CITY – Heavy rains caused by a tropical wave in Guatemala affected at least 600 people and damaged 116 homes while leaving millions in agricultural losses and [...]
Article: Four Children Die in Guatemala Rains
The following excerpt is from an August 24, 2010 article published by The Latin American Herald Tribune. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. GUATEMALA CITY – Four children have died in Guatemala over the past few hours as a result of the torrential rains falling across the Central American country, authorities [...]
An Opportunity for Discussion: Ushahidi Platform / Disaster Response
The Ushahidi Platform allows anyone to gather distributed data via SMS (text), email or web and visualize it on a map or timeline. Their goal is to create the simplest way of aggregating information from the public for use in crisis response. The group has produced an opensource product called CrowdMap, which is currently in [...]
Article: Mudslides Kill 5 in Guatemala
The following excerpt is from an August 11, 2010 article published by the Latin American Herald Tribune. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. GUATEMALA CITY – At least five people died and another 252 were evacuated after several mudslides were caused by torrential rains, Guatemalan authorities said Monday. The country’s emergency [...]
Article: UN Delivers Aid to Storm-Hit Guatemala
The following excerpt is from an August 5, 2010 article published by CRIEnglish.com. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. The United Nations International Organization for Migration (OIM) has delivered 50,000 U.S. dollars in aid to Guatemala which was hit by Tropical Storm Agatha in June, according to news arriving on Wednesday. [...]
Article: Honduras Says Coffee Exports are Set to Drop 9% Because of El Nino, Coup
The following excerpt is from an August 4, 2010 article published by Bloomberg Anywhere. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. Coffee exports from Honduras, set to become the world’s sixth-biggest exporter, will be about 9 percent lower than forecast this crop year because of losses from bad weather and a coup, [...]
Article: Climate Extremes Fuel Hunger in Guatemala
The following article is from a July 28, 2010 article published by IPS. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. GUATEMALA CITY, Jul 28, 2010 (IPS) – “Three-quarters of the fields are still under water. Maize, plantains, okra and pasture are all lost,” José Asencio told IPS at the village of Santa [...]
Volunteer Opp / Agatha Update: As Green As It Gets
As Green As It Gets has published an update on its Post-Agatha recovery & rebuilding efforts. Click here to access the entire update, and to get details about rebuilding volunteer opportunities! As Green As It Gets has led the clean-up efforts in our little corner of the planet, working with various local non-governmental organizations, the [...]
Profile: Rotary Club of Ft. Collins Dengue Program
Since 2005, the Rotary Club of Ft Collins, CO has been working with Rotary clubs in Guatemala on Dengue education and prevention programs. Dengue disease is caused by a virus that is transmitted by mosquitoes resulting in thousands of infections and hundreds of deaths each year in Guatemala. Unfortunately, there is no treatment or vaccine [...]
Article: Why One Guatemalan Newspaper Now Refuses to Cover the Giant Sinkhole
The following excerpt is from a July 13, 2010 article published by The Christian Science Monitor. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. The Tampa sinkhole that swallowed a car Sunday is not as deep, wide, or perfectly cylindrical as the Guatemala sinkhole that emerged in late May to rabid news coverage… [...]
Article: Alarming Spread of Dengue in Guatemala
The following excerpt is from a July 1, 2010 article published by InsideCostaRica.com. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. GUATEMALA – Guatemalan health authorities issued a red alert and began a drive to reduce the rising number of dengue cases and growing Aedes Aegipty mosquito population reported in the first six [...]
Article: Alex Grows Back into Tropical Storm Over Gulf
The following excerpt is from a June 27, 2010 article published by Dayton Daily News. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. …The hurricane center said rains will likely keep falling on southern Mexico and Guatemala until Tuesday and warned of life-threatening floods and mudslides. The heavy rains prompted a landslide in [...]
Article: First Atlantic Storm Kills 10 in Central America
The following excerpt is from a June 27, 2010 article published by The Gazette. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. MANAGUA – The first major storm of the Atlantic season barreled Sunday across the Yucatan Peninsula, after unleashing landslides and floods that killed at least 10 people in Nicaragua, Guatemela and [...]
Article: A Guatemalan Town’s Recovery from Tropical Storm Agatha
The following excerpt is from a June 24, 2010 article published by American Quarterly. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. While the rest of the world stared down the bottomless hole in Guatemala City’s Zone 2, the small town of San Antonio Palopó around Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan, was digging its way [...]
Article: Guatemalan Agriculture Needs 47 mln USD Aid Due to Storm Damage
The following excerpt is from a June 23, 2010 article published by People’s Daily Online. To read the article in its entirety, please click here. Guatemala’s Agriculture Minister Juan Alfonso De Leon said the nation’s farmers need 372 million quetzals (around 47 million dollars) in aid to rebuild after last month’s Tropical Storm Agatha, news [...]