Guatemala's past and present pains

Guatemala is a small country cituated in the middle of central america, rich in culture and amazing beautiful views; resently victim of the tropical storm Agatha and the explotion of Pacaya.

Besides those 2 we have been victim of numerous natural disasters that youre about to read in this blog

Guatemala is between the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean so it is a great target for hurricanes such as hurricane Mitch in 1998 and Stan in 2005, those two let numerous of dead and economic damages for this country, The damage was not wind related, but rather due to significant flooding and resulting mudslides.

Hurricane Mitch was the most powerful hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph (285 km/h) it dropped historic amounts of rainfall in Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, with unofficial reports of up to 75 inches (1900 mm). Deaths due to catastrophic flooding made it the second deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history; nearly 11,000 people were killed with over 11,000 left missing by the end of 1998.

Stan was a relatively weak storm that only briefly reached hurricane status. It was embedded in a larger non-tropical system of rainstorms that dropped torrential rains in the Central American countries of Guatemala and El Salvador and in southern Mexico, causing flooding and mudslides that led to 1,638 fatalities. Throughout the affected countries, the storm left roughly $3.9 billion in damage. 

                                          

Not only Guatemala is weak in front of the hurricanes, but also for the earthquackes that are realy common in this country because of the faults that are situaded in numerous of places among, known as the Motagua, Mixco, Jalpatagua, Santa Catarina Pinula faults.and Chixoy-Polochic fault complex, which cuts across Guatemala and forms the tectonic boundary between the Caribbean plate and the North American plate. Last year 2009 Guatemala suffered from a bunch of earthquakes in holy week, they were small , some of them where long and strong put not destructive at all. The most famous tragedy in history of seimics happened in february 4 of 1976 at 3a.m, 

with a magnitude of 7.5 M_w and a hypocenter depth of just 5 km. This shallow-focus earthquake, originating from the Motagua Fault, caused 23,000 fatalities, leaving 76,000 injured and causing widespread material damage. 

Many people who told me about this one remember it as terrifing, long and with some others that follow it the same day and the next 3 days, there was a buzz during the earthquakes and the soud of the windows and glasses dancing left to right, the panic was so big that almost no one considered slepping a good option.

There are 3 types of movement, left to right, up and down and the wave one, all of theme made their presence that day.

Some little earthquakes caused more damage than the big ones like the 1985 earthquake in Ustatlan which destroyed various buildings in the city.

We cant forget about Pacaya volcano! beautiful thing indeed who's resent explosion caused ash falling in the capital city of Guatema during  Thursday 27 , may 2010.

The communities near the volcano suffered from volcanic stone falling besides the ashes so many people had to evacuate and leave their goods to Pacaya's anger, of course there were some issues with that, because people's work and sufferig had become just an ilusion, somo many families refused to move and risked their own lives. 

From this calamity there are 3 deads registred, 77 injured and thousand of evacuated, without mentioning the econimic loss.

But this wasn't the end of Guatemala's resent pain.. no, this was just the start of a calamity state that stay for one week, because last may 29th 2010,  Agata suprised central americans with her strenght.

Agatha originated from the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which is a region of thunderstorms across the tropics. It developed into a tropical depression on May 29, and dissipated on May 30, reaching top winds of 45 mph (75 km/h) and a lowest pressure of 1000 mbar (hPa; 29.53 inHg). It made landfall near the Guatemala–Mexico border on the evening of May 29. Agatha produced torrential rain all across Central America, which resulted in the death of one person in Nicaragua. In Guatemala, 152 people were killed and 100 left missing by landslides. 13 deaths also occurred in El Salvador. It soon dissipated over Guatemala.

She also made a huge hole in Guatemala, and risk of sickness to come, like diarrhea, cholera, skin and respiratory diseases.

 All Central America's countries had count on the other continets and countries help and solidarity.

 

sources:

http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20100604/cartas/155615

http://www.prensalibre.com/noticias/Volcan-Pacaya-pequenas-municipios-afectados_0_269373336.html

http://actualidad.rt.com/ciencia_y_tecnica/medioambiente_espacio/issue_9288.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Stan