Corruption, crumbling infrastructure, uncontrolled urbanization and poverty — which afflicts 60 percent of Central America's 50 million inhabitants — all combine to leave more and more people exposed to natural disasters
Sandra Ramos, 22, remains with her children Bryan and Zoy Yamileth Ramos, at an improvised shack she built with the help of the US Agency for the International Development (USAID) on the banks of the Ulua river after the passage of hurricanes Eta and Iota in La Lima, Honduras. Image: Orlando Sierra/ AFP
San Salvador, El Salvador: Every time it rains, Blanca Arias in El Salvador and Sandra Ramos in Honduras fear that flooding will raze their precarious homes and leave their families destitute. Again.
It is a fate that strikes all too often in parts of Central America and, experts say, ever more frequently and severely due to climate change.
Corruption, crumbling infrastructure, uncontrolled urbanization and poverty — which afflicts 60 percent of Central America's 50 million inhabitants — all combine to leave more and more people exposed to natural disasters.
And the region has many: from volcanic eruptions, drought and heat waves to regular flooding brought on by tropical storms and hurricanes.