05542
Oct. 10, 2005

PDA sending $50,000 to help
Salvadoran victims of Hurricane Stan

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE — Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has sent $50,000 to El Salvador to help meet the immediate needs of residents of parts of Central America and southern Mexico that were pummeled last week by Hurricane Stan.

     The funds are being channeledthrough Action by Churches Together International (ACT), a Geneva-based international alliance of churches and relief agencies, of which PDA is a member.

     By Monday, mudslides and flooding triggered by Hurricane Stan had killed more than 700 people and many others were missing and feared dead. In El Salvador, at least 67 have been killed. Officials there said 54,000 evacuees had gathered in 370 shelters around the country, according to published reports.

     "We stand ready to provide immediate support,” PDA said in a situation report.  “The level of damage being reported points to a very long recovery effort.”

     At least 652 people are now known to have died in Guatemala, where hundreds were still missing Monday. That country bore the brunt of the heavy rains produced by Hurricane Stan, which made landfall Tuesday in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, Mexico, before quickly weakening to become a tropical depression.

     Rescuers in one Guatemalan village struggled Sunday to recover the bodies of as many as 1,400 Maya Indians killed in a mudslide. Officials were considering whether to declare the village a mass grave.

     PDA, the relief arm of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is also committing $30,000 to Guatemala, but won’t send funds until Carlos Cardenas, its Latin America representative, has reached the country and identified a coordinated response, the situation report said. He is expected to reach Guatemala this week.

     The immediate need in Guatemala is for food and water. PDA said supplies cannot be delivered until roads are cleared and bridges are repaired.

     Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica also reported Hurricane Stan-related deaths.

     Two-thirds of El Salvador’s territory was hit by mudslides. Nearly 150 were reported in the Soyapango neighborhood in the capital, San Salvador. About 1,500 people have been evacuated from areas of high mudslide risk.

     Meanwhile, in the southern Mexican province of Chiapas, the homes of the president and secretary of the Presbytery of Chiapas were washed away by the storm. In recent days, water-covered roads have left the region accessible only by helicopter, PDA reported.

     The Reformed Church in America has had mission coworkers in these presbyteries for 80 years.

     “PDA will support whatever appeal they put out, after the local presbyteries have done their assessment and budgets,” the PDA said in the situation report.

     In Nicaragua, ACT alliance members are formulating a response budget and plans. In addition, PDA is aware of severe famine in northern Nicaragua and has been preparing to respond to that situation as well.

     PDA Coordinator Susan Ryan and Pamela Burdine, PDA’s associate for communication and resources, could not be reached on Monday.