Puerto Cortez, Honduras

It´s such a relief to finally settle down into a hotel after 24 hours of traveling. We took a red-eye from LAX to San Salvador then hopped over to the Honduran capitol Tegucigalpa, where we met up with Jim, Dr. Claudio, and our guide Richard. From there, we drove a rickety pick-up truck north across Honduras to Puerto Cortez, the city that reported the most damage and was closest to the quake´s epicenter 60 miles off the coast.

Andrea called me yesterday, as I was frantically getting ready for the trip, to downplay expectations for the magnitude of disaster that we would be seeing. What little was reported in the news seemed to indicate that damage was limited to only a few buildings and bridges and that only a handful of people were injured or killed. However, Rescue Task Force volunteers with friends from this region were telling of much more extensive damage than that. The possibility was even raised that the current president of Honduras might be suppressing news of earthquake damage to keep the national dialogue focused on his efforts to ammend the Honduran constitution to allow him to stay president past his term limit.

So, we were really heading into an unknown. In fact, as we wound our way around the mountain roads and approached Puerto Cortez, I noticed how life seemed to continue uninterrupted: Friday night marketplaces materializing on the side of the road, groups of people walking or riding bikes to the local hang-out, peasants hauling loads of bananas or firewood to sell and make their living. I didn´t see any cracks or other evidence of structural damage, even after we arrived here.

The plan is to scout out the reports of leveled homes first thing in the morning and assess the need for our aid; if none exists, we´ll head back to Tegucigalpa, help out at the orphanage there, then fly back on Monday. "This is the business of rapid response disaster relief," Andrea says. Sometimes there are false alarms.


On a side note, Rescue Task Force has been on the news all day today after news crews descended on us at the airport while we were waiting for our rickety rental pick-up truck. Everywhere we stopped, people recognized us from the news casts. After dinner tonight, a little boy walked up to me and said ¨Thank you for helping us!¨ in surprisingly good English. It was very touching. I do hope that we have the opportunity to do some good while we´re here, even if the need for our help isn´t as dire as we originally thought.