HONDURAS — Hundreds of thousands of displaced people now line the streets of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, after Hurricane Eta’s slow-moving rains triggered devastating flooding and landslides. Entire communities are left without access to shelter, clean water, and crucial medical care.

If that weren’t bad enough, Hurricane Iota brought more winds and rain across Honduras, Nicaragua, and surrounding countries.

In the wake of this disaster, Samaritan’s Purse has brought a multifaceted response to the Central American nation: providing community water filtration systems, hygiene kits, shelter material, and an Emergency Field Hospital to help meet the growing needs of Honduran families.

Kelly Suter, RN, Samaritan’s Purse:

My name is Kelly Suter. I’m the medical director for our hospital facility here in Honduras. The original storm, Hurricane Eta, knocked out a lot of the primary health care centers. A lot of them were flooded out, severely damaged. They lost supplies, medications. And so they were unable to function.

So we went ahead and set up our facility despite the impending storm. We will provide primary care, basic stabilization, basic first aid. And now there’s a second storm coming that’s going to hit the same areas and cause similar devastation. So there’s a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, a lot of frustration, a lot of fear.

Our plan right now is to see patients as long as humanly possible. After that, we’ll go ahead and drop all the tents down, secure everything to the ground, and be ready to provide services the moment the storm passes. We get to experience this hurricane with the community. We get to be present and ready to support them the moment it passes, and it’s an absolute honor and privilege to be here for that.

Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped meet the needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ. The organization serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Samaritan’s Purse International Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) program is committed to meeting the critical needs of victims of war, poverty, famine, disease, and natural disaster. We stand ready to respond at a moment’s notice whenever and wherever disaster strikes. The DART specializes in providing water, food, shelter, and medical care while sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

CONTACT: Kaitlyn Lahm, news@samaritan.org

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