ACT Alliance

In some areas, large tracts of land are still flooded. Almost all crops have been lost.
Photo: ACT/LWF WSD CA/Mauricio Boulogne

Official figures show that, in El Salvador, October's Storm 12E caused damage amounting to US $1,500m.

The announcement was made on Tuesday 25 October by President Mauricio Funes while carrying out the summit of the countries of Secretariat of Central American Integration (SICA), which was planned as a joint effort to call for international support for reconstruction in the region.

The president said that "direct damage" would cost the country US $650m, but this amount tripled when calculating the cost of rebuilding damaged infrastructure, whether public or private, and putting preventative mesaures in place.

Houses that were destroyed by the violent storm and associated floods will be repaired, but with innovative building methods at their core so that they are never vulnerable to extreme weather.

The burden on the Central American nation is huge. Official data estimates that the damage to infrastructure and production could cost El Salvador as much as 5% of gross domestic product.

"I have to pay my debt with four days of work." Although his crops are now ruined, farmer Francisco still has to work for the money he borrowed in order to grow them.
Photo: ACT/LWF WSD/Mauricio Boulogne

Meanwhile, the United Nations launched an emergency appeal for US $15.7 million to assist 300,000 people affected by the El Salvador storm.

The government's consolidated assessment of the damage to the country shows that 300,000 were directly affected, of whom 270,000 are small-scale farmers who lost part or all of their basic grain crops.

Some of the areas worst affected areas by the rains in El Salvador were in the Ahuachapán Department in the south. A delegation of representatives from two ACT member organisations, the Lutheran World Federation and the Lutheran Church of El Salvador, visited several communities in the cantons of Garita Palmera and La Hachadura. They witnessed the stark reality of the damage: almost all the crops - corn, bananas and sugar cane - have been lost. In addition, the cows are becoming ill and dying because the grass is not edible, and undrained floodwaters are contributing to the proliferation of mosquitoes.

"There is nobody who has not suffered" said Julio, a peasant farmer, about the situation prevailing in the area.

This 60-year-old man describes how he endured the rain for days, unable to leave home or even to search for food. The night when the river overflowed, he barely escaped with his wife and a grandson.

Very calmly, Julio explains that has lost practically all their belongings. Now, cows are sick and possibly will die, because they have no grass to eat. "But with God's help we will succeed," he says.