Hurricane Stan
05/10/2005
All children at the SOS Children’s Villages in the region are safe
Hurricane Stan, which struck Central America on Tuesday 4th October 2005, has left a trail of destruction and claimed hundreds of lives. In Guatemala alone, over 130,000 people have been affected by the hurricane. All SOS Children’s Villages in Central America though were fortunate: all children, mothers and staff remained unharmed, and the SOS Children's Village facilities are mostly intact.
According to latest reports, Hurricane Stan and the subsequent mudslides and floods have claimed at least 800 lives. Guatemala has recorded 650 dead, and fatalities have also been reported in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras. The death toll will rise further. Officials in Guatemala want villages too remote to be reached by rescue teams to be declared mass graves. The country has declared a state of emergency.
SOS Children's Villages in the area were fortunate. A local SOS Children co-worker in Guatemala reported that the main damage was to the SOS Vocational Training Centre Panajachel, which suffered from minor floods. At the time the hurricane struck no children were at the SOS Vocational Training centre. Due to landslides, telephone lines and access roads to the SOS Vocational Training Centre are currently interrupted.
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Relevant Countries: USA.