Hurricane Mitch 1998
Hurricane Mitch was the event that launched a 20 year effort to improve the lives of Honduran children.
Hurricane track
Hurricane Mitch tracked directly over the home town of founder Lorena Bredemeier in Morazan, Yoro and just sat there for days.
Two Devastating Days
This slow forward speed proved catastrophic. Mitch’s deadliest impact was from the heavy rainfall it produced as it moved slowly across the mountainous terrain of Honduras, pulling in moisture from both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. In the state of Yoro (HEDAC’s location). Over 20 inches of rain fell in just two days.
Mudslides
Mudslides washed away thousands of homes and blocked many roads.
Flooding caused major damage
Flooding caused the greatest damage in loss of life, homes and washed out roads, setting back the infrastructure by an estimated 15 years washed away thousands of homes and blocked many roads.
Accepting Donations
In 1998 two future HEDAC board members, Chicago based Lorena and Marie are packing donations headed to Honduras in response to Hurricane Mitch.
Clothing & Toys Drive
Filling a container often starts with many groups using homes to sort and pack boxes of clothing and toys.
Warehousing Donations
Once the home runs out of space donations are moved to a warehouse until there is sufficient goods to fill a container.
Container Loading
Filling a 40 cubic foot container takes a lot of man power. The generosity of several warehouse operations gave us space pro bono as well as the manpower to load it.
Container Loaded
With container loaded, next stop Morazan, Yoro Honduras.
