TROPICAL STORM ETA FLASH NOVEMBER 2020 APPEAL HONDURAS 01 FLASH APPEAL HONDURAS - TROPICAL STORM ETA This appeal was prepared prior to the impact of Hurricane Iota Get the latest updates on Central America and therefore does not reflect its possible impact in Honduras. OCHA coordinates humanitarian action to ensure This document is produced by the Humanitarian Country Team with crisis-affected people receive the assistance and the leadership of the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office in protection they need. It works to overcome obstacles Honduras and COPECO, with the support of the United Nations Office that impede humanitarian assistance from reaching for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). It covers the people affected by crises, and provides leadership in period from mid-November 2020 to mid-May 2021. mobilizing assistance and resources on behalf of the humanitarian system Photo on cover: UNFPA www.unocha.org/rolac The designations employed and the presentation of material in the report do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Humanitarian Response aims to be the central website for Information Management tools and services, enabling information exchange between clusters and IASC members operating within a protracted or sudden onset crisis. www.humanitarianresponse.info Humanitarian InSight supports decision-makers by giving them access to key humanitarian data. It provides the latest verified information on needs and delivery of the humanitarian response as well as financial contributions. www.hum-insight.com The Financial Tracking Service (FTS) is the primary provider of continuously updated data on global human- itarian funding, and is a major contributor to strategic decision making by highlighting gaps and priorities, thus contributing to effective, efficient and principled humani- tarian assistance. fts.org 02 Table of Contents 05 Crisis overview 11 Major humanitarian needs 14 Strategic objectives 17 Financial requirements by sector 17 WASH 20 Food Security 22 Health 24 Protection 27 Education 29 CCCM 31 Coordination 32 Annex: List of projects by sector 70 How to support this Flash Appeal 03 FLASH APPEAL HONDURAS - TROPICAL STORM ETA TOTAL POPULATION HONDURAS PEOPLE IN NEED PEOPLE TARGETED REQUIREMENTS (US$) 9.1M 2.3M 450,000 $69.2M UN AGENCIES, FUNDS AND NGOs and Red Cross* PROGRAMMES* 11 MEXICO 22 * Included in this Flash Appeal k rac Belize City a t AFFECTED PEOPLE Et by Department GUATEMALA rm sto al opic 750k elmopan Tr Caribbean Sea Dangriga BELIZE 100k Islas de La Bahia Cortes La Ceiba Trujillo Atlantida Colon Brus Laguna San Pedro Sula Yoro Puerto Lempira Santa Barbara Gracias a Dios Olancho Copan Juticalpa Santa Rosa de Copan Comayagua Ocotepeque Intibuca Lempira Tegucigalpa El Puerto Cabezas La Paz Francisco Paraiso EL SALVADOR Morazan San Salvador Valle Choluteca San Miguel Choluteca Esteli NICARAGUA PACIFIC OCEAN Leon 25 km 04 Crisis overview Eta, the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season’s record-tying economic conditions, high food insecurity, forced 28th storm, began affecting northern Honduras as a displacement and chronic violence. Category 4 hurricane approaching the north-eastern Eta comes as Honduras deals with the ongoing MEXICO shores of neighbouring Nicaragua on 3 November, COVID-19 pandemic, which has only exacerbated these bringing torrential rains that the United States’ National vulnerabilities. As such, response to Eta must build Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast could leave as on longstanding humanitarian response efforts from much as 635mm of rain and cause wind speeds as partners who are well-versed in the scope and scale of k high as 275 km/h. rac Belize City a t AFFECTED PEOPLE Honduras’ multidimensional needs and who are best Et by Department GUATEMALA m tor l s During its slow three-day journey over Nicaragua, positioned to provide immediate life-saving assistance ica rop 750k elmopan T Caribbean Honduras and Guatemala, Eta downgraded to a tropical and prevent further spread of COVID-19 in communi- Sea Dangriga storm and then to a tropical depression, drenching ties reeling in the wake of Eta’s devastating impact. BELIZE 100k much of Honduras and causing rising river levels, Islas Impact de La Bahia flooding and landslides across the country. These Between incessant rains, widespread flooding and impacts collectively created a host of overlapping landslides, Eta caused damage across nearly all of humanitarian needs for hundreds of thousands of Cortes Honduras’ 18 departments. At least 745 communities people in vulnerable communities now facing the grim La Ceiba Trujillo across 155 of Honduras’ 298 municipalities report Atlantida Colon Brus Laguna reality of recovering from Honduras’ worst natural varying degrees of damage. The extent of this damage San hazard in more than 20 years. Pedro Sula beyond the rolling count of affected people and official Yoro Puerto Lempira For many in the worst affected areas, Eta evoked death toll of 74 people may not be known for weeks, Santa Barbara Gracias a Dios Olancho horrific memories of Hurricane Fifi in 1974 and Hurri- as COPECO currently reports damage to 150 roads as Copan cane Mitch in 1998, both considered among the most well as more than 60 damaged or destroyed bridges, Juticalpa Santa Rosa de Copan destructive storms to ever strike Central America, obstacles that have limited access to critically affected Comayagua Ocotepeque Intibuca with death tolls numbering in the thousands. Mitch, communities and isolated more than 103,000 people. Lempira Tegucigalpa considered the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane With tens of thousands of people still cut off with Puerto Cabezas El on record, cost Honduras decades of development. unknown access to food or safe water for consump- La Paz Francisco Paraiso EL SALVADOR Morazan Daily figures from the Permanent Commission for tion and sanitation, the real number of affected San Salvador Valle Contingencies (COPECO) have steadily risen each day people and number of deaths attributable to Eta may Choluteca to account for as many as 2.94 million affected people San Miguel never be known. as of 12 November, roughly 30 per cent of the coun- Choluteca Eta has thus far driven at least 42,000 people to Esteli try’s population. 425 shelters, giving way to one of the most critical NICARAGUA While Eta’s material damage, which authorities are humanitarian priorities to respond to while authorities PACIFIC OCEAN Leon still quantifying due to ongoing access constraints to scramble to reach all Eta-affected communities to save cut off communities, may not match Mitch’s nation- lives and assess the true level of the storm’s overall wide level of destruction, the potential impact may impact. The convergence of large numbers of people potentially be worse, given pre-existing vulnerabilities in shelters, limited shelter management capacities, stemming from recurring climate shocks, deteriorating urgent food security, water, health and protection needs and the COVID-19 pandemic stand to create a 25 km 05 FLASH APPEAL HONDURAS - TROPICAL STORM ETA complex series of interrelated needs that only amplify is home about 30 per cent of Honduras’ population one another’s consequences. and represents about two-thirds of Honduras’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These areas, among the With each passing day revealing the true magnitude most densely populated in the country, will likely see of Eta’s impact, the long-term consequences and losses in agriculture, livestock and livelihoods that will concerns over impacts to livelihoods and physical come to bear on food insecurity and poverty and poten- and emotional well-being become clearer. Clean-up tially drive increased displacement and migration. The efforts may take months. The slowly receding waters, affected area also concentrates heavy industry, agri- which have already contaminated water supply and culture at small and large scale and mining, meaning distribution infrastructure, will almost assuredly wipe that risks of chemical contamination as a result of out crops and harvests, placing food security and the impact of the storms on these sites cannot yet livelihoods in jeopardy; initial reports already cite be ruled out. losses of, or damages to, some 318,635 hectares of crops. The standing water also provides disease-car- Other areas with significant impacts include Gracias rying vectors with ample breeding grounds in a country a Dios in the north-east, whose 16,557 evacuated that experienced its most severe dengue outbreak families are second only to Cortés and El Paraíso in ever as recently as 2019, which saw 112,000 cases south-central Honduras, whose nearly a quarter of a and 180 deaths. million affected people trails only the four Sula valley departments. These impacts and their still-unfolding consequences, together with the COVID-19 crisis, pose a new set of Vulnerable groups backbreaking challenges in a country where there are As with any emergency, Honduras’ vulnerable popu- already 1.6 million people with humanitarian needs lations will be disproportionately affected. These and 3.0 million people with critical problems related to high-risk groups include people in extreme poverty, resilience and recovery, according to latest calculation indigenous populations, Afro-Honduran ethnic groups, incorporating the impact of COVID. Prior