RESPONDING TO THE WRATH OF MITCH.

• Position: Hurricane Mitch - Brief Article

The OAS and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) are coordinating a relief effort for the Central American countries devastated by Hurricane Mitch, one of the most destructive storms of this century.

Volunteers are gathering and shipping corporate and private donations, as well as truckloads of food, water, medical supplies, and clothes to the region, and a telephone hotline has been set up at the OAS for the pledge of donations and for information.

Upon completing a two-day visit to Honduras, where the tragedy hit hardest, Secretary General Cesar Gaviria remarked, "The Organization of American States has set up a series of concrete programs for economic cooperation with Honduras that will be a great improvement to what we had in the past." Gaviria added, "we are organizing a foundation, associated with the Organization, to be able to channel assistance from the private sector in the United States and Canada."

Hurricanes and tropical storms occur with regularity throughout the Caribbean and along the Atlantic coast of North America. They have a special season and vary in their severity of high winds and driving rain. Each storm travels at its own speed, cutting a damaging swath from the Atlantic basin. Of the approximately fifteen storms a year, most are soon forgotten. Some, however, have caused such awesome destruction in a particular place that they are long remembered as a lethal visitation of nature's terrible power.

In 1998 nature devised a "one, two punch" of hurricanes that punished the countries of the Caribbean and Central America, causing a level of death and destruction unanticipated even by those agencies that devise plans for emergency relief to confront natural disasters. In August Hurricane Georges, with winds of 95 miles an hour, swept through the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. Thousands were left homeless, crops were destroyed, and many communities, isolated by flooding, were left without food, drinking water, or medical assistance. The physical and tourist infrastructure of these countries, particularly Antigua and Barbuda and the Dominican Republic, was ravaged. In countries where international tourism is the most important industry, damage to the economy is long lasting. But the worst was yet to come.

In the last days of October, Hurricane Mitch emerged in the Caribbean and moved toward the coast of Central America. Sustained winds of 130-150...