• Climate
• Nature

Tegucigalpa, Nov 17 (EFE).-

The capital of Honduras was declared on high alert Sunday due to damage caused by the rains from tropical storm Sara, which affected 111,000 people nationwide, according to official reports.

As a result of the flooding of the rivers that cross Tegucigalpa, mainly the Choluteca, several important bridges that connect with the twin city of Comayagüela were closed by the municipal government.

Hundreds of people have been evacuated in the last two days due to the rains hitting the entire country since Thursday, with greater rainfall throughout the Caribbean region, which is the most productive in agricultural, industrial and commercial matters.

In Tegucigalpa, some families were forced by rescuers to abandon their modest homes in neighborhoods along flooded riverbanks and ravines.

The rise of the Choluteca River, which is fed by other tributaries in the central region and flows into the Gulf of Fonseca, is also having repercussions in southern Honduras, flooding low-lying areas, reported the Secretariat for Risk Management and National Contingencies (Copeco).

The south of Honduras, which includes the departments of Choluteca, bordering Nicaragua, and Valle, with El Salvador, were declared in red alert (forced evacuation) due to the rise in the rivers that cross it, such as the Choluteca, Goascorán and Nacaóme.

Although storm Sara, which also forced the closure of four international airports, has already left the country, red, yellow and green alerts remain in effect in the 18 departments that make up the Honduran territory.

Another six departments remain on red alert in the Caribbean, with four on yellow and six on green.Copeco expects that on Monday afternoon the rains will begin to decrease and the soil will dry out in some regions of the Caribbean where the rain has already stopped.

It is also expected that the level of large rivers that originate in the west and flow into the Caribbean, such as the Ulúa and Chamelecón, will drop. In the last two days, they have flooded low and fertile parts of the north of the country.

The civil protection agency registered at least 110,889 people affected by 6 pm local time Sunday (00:00 GMT) nationwide, 10,326 families affected, 8,416 evacuated and 5,057 sheltered.

Storm Sara has also left 3,946 homes damaged, 2,534 destroyed and 209 communities cut off, in addition to damage to dozens of roads, bridges, water, sewage and electrical services, agricultural, livestock, industrial and tourist production areas, among others.

Of the country’s 18 departments, 15 have been affected by Sara, which was downgraded to a tropical depression when it made landfall in Belize. EFE

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