May 20, 2005

Hurricane Adrian causes severe flooding, evacuations

Hurricane Adrian reached the Pacific coast of El Salvador as a category one hurricane at around 8 PM PDT Thursday night before weakening to a tropical storm and passing over the rest of the country, according to the US National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm’s heavy rains resulted in severe flooding in certain areas of the country. According to the Associated Press, some 14,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes and seek refuge in temporary shelters. Most of the shelters, maintained by municipal governments, are not equipped with mattresses or food supplies.

Early reports from the Network of Environmentalists in Action, a coalition of environmental organizations, indicate that communities in the department of Usulatán in the Bajo Lempa river basin and near the Rio Grande de San Miguel were most affected.

The shelters in Puerto Parada, El Espino and Concepción Batres each housed approximately 200 families through the night. Some families have already been able to return to their homes.

Dr. Ángel Ibarra, the president of the Salvadoran Ecological Union (UNES), described Adrian as an unusual storm since it came from the Pacific Ocean and hurricanes almost always originate in the Caribbean and rarely strike El Salvador directly. Moreover, though the hurricane season generally lasts from May to October, Central America is most prone to hurricanes between August and October from storms patterns that originate in the southern part of the Caribbean.

If you are interested in helping with relief efforts, we will keep you informed of where help is most needed when that information becomes available.