GUATEMALA – Panabaj is a community of around 75 families at the edge of Lake Atitlan. At least 40 of these families were affected when a mudslide completely buried their homes. Roads were blocked because of the mudslides and aid could not get into the community.

A volunteer team working together with Operation Blessing was able to fly a small plane into the cut-off village to bring help to the people in need. We were one of the first aid groups to reach these families due to the difficulty of flying over Lake Atitlan because of recent bad weather.

We provided 22 families with emergency relief aid, including packages of food and medicine.

In Amatitlán, a county just outside of Guatemala City, people were evacuated to a shelter due to flooding of the Río Michatoya. Operation Blessing worked together with volunteers from United Way and Sony Ericsson to distribute more than 400 packages that included basic items like food, hygiene kits and medicine to these families and the surrounding community.

Three communities in Usumatlán, Zacapa were also affected by the heavy rains. At least 450 people were evacuated on June 5 when two main rivers flooded from the constant rainfall in the area. OB went to one of the shelters where at least 100 people are staying. We were able to install a purifying system and give them safe, clean water to drink.

Tags: Aid Distribution, Amatitlan, clean water, Disaster Relief, flooding, Guatemala, Lake Atitlan, Latin America, Medical Supplies, Mudslides, OBI, Operation Blessing, Panabaj, Relief Aid, Relief Supplies, Rio Michatoya, Sacapa, Sony Ericsson, United Way, Usumatlan, Water Purification System

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 at 12:37 pm and is filed under Disaster, Disaster Relief, Latin America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.