2008 Woodie Awards
Hurricane Stan Hits Central America and Mexico
Hurricane Stan results in devastation throughout Central America and Mexico.
Kelsey Field
Issue date: 10/14/05 Section: News
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As the season of devastating hurricanes is nearing its end, those ravaged by the natural disasters have only begun the long and hard process of rebuilding. Hurricane Stan was the 20th tropical depression this season, and it formed in the western Caribbean Sea on Saturday Oct. 1.
Mexico was the first to issue tropical storm warnings to the Yucatan Peninsula, a warning which stretched from the northwestern coast of the peninsula to the west of Campeche. On Tuesday, October 4, Stan turned into a category 1 hurricane and slammed into Mexico's Gulf Coast, generating several related storms which caused death and devastation throughout Central America and Southern Mexico.
But in these impoverished countries, Hurricane Stan was just the beginning for these countries that simply cannot afford to protect their people from the onslaught of rain, mudslides and landslides that are proving to take the most lives.
Even after Stan weakened back down to a tropical storm, the flooding and mudslides continued to rage at full force, sweeping away with ferocity the ramshackle houses of wood and metal. In the wake of Stan, 16,700 Salvadorans fled to the 167 shelters that El Salvador provided nationwide, an escape that all those in countries affected by Stan endured. Nicaragua, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Honduras also all felt the death brought on by Stan, with roads and bridges swept away with the mud.
By the 7th, food and water start to run out all over the area, and governments start to scramble to reach those in the isolated areas where panic was becoming widespread. Of all the countries, Guatemala was the hardest hit by Stan, leaving the government with a death toll has been steadily climbing as time slowly ticks by.
Guatemala, despite their search efforts, declared on Sunday that search and rescue efforts in towns buried by the landslides would be called off and instead labeled as mass graves. Mayor Diego Esquina declared that "Panabaj will no longer exist", the Mayan hamlet on the shores of Lake Atitalan that was covered by a half mile wide mudflow, up to 15-20 feet deep. "We are asking that it be declared a cemetery. We are tired; we no longer know where to dig."
Mexico was the first to issue tropical storm warnings to the Yucatan Peninsula, a warning which stretched from the northwestern coast of the peninsula to the west of Campeche. On Tuesday, October 4, Stan turned into a category 1 hurricane and slammed into Mexico's Gulf Coast, generating several related storms which caused death and devastation throughout Central America and Southern Mexico.
But in these impoverished countries, Hurricane Stan was just the beginning for these countries that simply cannot afford to protect their people from the onslaught of rain, mudslides and landslides that are proving to take the most lives.
Even after Stan weakened back down to a tropical storm, the flooding and mudslides continued to rage at full force, sweeping away with ferocity the ramshackle houses of wood and metal. In the wake of Stan, 16,700 Salvadorans fled to the 167 shelters that El Salvador provided nationwide, an escape that all those in countries affected by Stan endured. Nicaragua, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Honduras also all felt the death brought on by Stan, with roads and bridges swept away with the mud.
By the 7th, food and water start to run out all over the area, and governments start to scramble to reach those in the isolated areas where panic was becoming widespread. Of all the countries, Guatemala was the hardest hit by Stan, leaving the government with a death toll has been steadily climbing as time slowly ticks by.
Guatemala, despite their search efforts, declared on Sunday that search and rescue efforts in towns buried by the landslides would be called off and instead labeled as mass graves. Mayor Diego Esquina declared that "Panabaj will no longer exist", the Mayan hamlet on the shores of Lake Atitalan that was covered by a half mile wide mudflow, up to 15-20 feet deep. "We are asking that it be declared a cemetery. We are tired; we no longer know where to dig."