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Damage Stymies Guatemalan Aid Effort
View from a U.S. Army helicopter shows destruction from a mudslide, one of many near the town of Panajachel. At least 652 are dead and 577 missing in Hurricane Stan's aftermath in Guatemala.
(By Brennan Linsley -- Associated Press)
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In southern Guatemala, officials said, the Nahualate Bridge was destroyed when large chunks of broken asphalt in muddy rainwater smashed into its foundations. The bridge is a crucial point in the major artery connecting southern coastal states with the rest of the country.
President Oscar Berger has said reconstruction of the country's infrastructure is a priority. He has planned for days to visit victims of the disaster but inclement weather prevented helicopter landings. On Tuesday, he was finally able to fly to Santiago Atitlan, a major town in the highlands near several destroyed villages, and said he had come to "share the pain" of survivors who had lost loved ones, according to the Associated Press.
Without swift repairs to the country's arteries, much of the country is at risk of a food shortage, Eduardo Secaira, the country's international aid coordinator, told CNN on Tuesday.
"The problem is that the south coast is also in bad shape, so basic crops like corn and rice are gone," he said. The government will have to ensure that food is shipped to affected areas, he said.
Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, pledged on Monday to lend engineering and technical support to help restore bridges and highways. The United States is also lending Guatemala a dozen Black Hawk helicopters to ship food and supplies to remote villages.
"We are committed to providing help and search-and-rescue efforts for those affected using our equipment and people," Craddock said at a news conference here.
The United States has already delivered 5,000 blankets, 15,000 gallons of drinking water and 11,000 gallons of fuel to victims, officials said.
Until the roads are repaired, soldiers have been walking with bags of corn and bottles of water to stranded villages where people do not want to leave their homes. Bill Muirhead, an American who moved to Panajachel from Chicago 15 months ago, said getting food to villages around the lake has required Herculean efforts. "I bought some corn and beans in Solola and we walked back and forth, carrying the 100-pound bags of food on our backs," Muirhead said.
