Just two weeks after Hurricane Eta devastated parts of Central America, with Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua worst hit, Hurricane Iota made landfall in Nicaragua during the early hours of November 17, just 15 miles south of where Eta had first hit the region. With more than 2.5 million people from Panama to Belize already impacted in some way by Hurricane Eta, the region is facing an unprecedented situation, especially given Iota’s distinction as the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in Nicaragua in the month of November.

The back-to-back storms have created an overwhelming situation for government officials and aid groups, who are struggling to temporarily house those displaced by the storms, a particularly difficult task during a pandemic. Heavy rains have caused flooding and landslides, which have wiped out entire communities. One village in Guatemala was covered in mud 50 feet deep in some places. 

Beyond their immediate devastation, the two storms have also highlighted how vulnerable Central America is to climate change, and, in particular, how certain groups are being disproportionately impacted.

Unfortunately, record-breaking storms can no longer be considered an aberration. Relatively warm ocean temperatures tend to increase the size and strength of hurricanes, so increasing water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean mean we can expect increasingly strong storms in the region.

While there is an obvious economic and financial impact of increasingly destructive hurricanes and tropical storms, which Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei blames for a vicious cycle of debt accumulation, it is important not to forget the human impacts of such disasters. 

Guatemala is not alone, in this September SPOTLIGHT, 44 small island and low-lying coastal developing states comprising the Alliance of Small Island States, called for debt relief due to worsening economic pressure and climate change impacts. 

Broadly speaking, climate change is contributing to livelihood loss and displacement in Central America, a reality that is often lost in the discourse around migrants from the region, which tends to see them solely as a security threat. It is important to recognize that many who emigrate from the region do so because they also do not see a way forward in the face of extreme weather and resultant food insecurity. As the impacts of climate change intensify, it is likely that the set of options available to those wishing to stay will only shrink, leading to even more out-migration.

The impacts of climate change in Central America threaten the lives of millions, but perhaps no one stands to lose more than Indigenous and other historically oppressed groups, a universal issue we highlighted in the Canadian context in a recent SPOTLIGHT piece. In Honduras alone, 1.7 million people were impacted by Hurricane Eta, many of whom were women, children and Indigenous communities, who lost everything. These Indigenous populations that least contribute to climate change are facing some of the most dramatic impacts, yet another chapter in a long history of unjust environmental policies and practices, such as extractive industry, energy projects, and monoculture crops destined for export.

Eta and Iota are no exception. Many Indigenous and other minority communities, already faced with inadequate sanitation and food resources as well as limited health services amidst a pandemic, have seen an inexcusably slow response from local and national governments. In one Afro-Indigenous community in Honduras, where Eta’s storm surge destroyed subsistence crops and housing, aid came more quickly and in more significant volume from US-based diaspora communities than from the local government. 

Several Central American countries have consistently ranked high in climate risk indices, and increasingly more destructive hurricane seasons, Central American nations face a massive challenge when it comes to reducing negative impacts and protecting its people. The most recent hurricanes, and the damage left in their wake, have shown the region remains extremely vulnerable to climate change. While politicians tend to frame the problem in dollars and cents, communities across Central America, especially Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, demonstrate just how urgently we must consider the human cost. (NPR, The Guardian, CNN, Latin America Reports, The Intercept)

To help humanitarian relief efforts in Central America, donate here to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appeal or via your local Red Cross.