Risks in Central America: Bringing Them Under Control

Abstract

For centuries Central American communities have been experiencing disasters which provoke fatalities, injuries, and losses of various kinds. During the conquest in the early 1500’s the Spanish conquerors experienced their first disaster when a hurricane on 11 September 1541 triggered a massive landslide that buried the town of Santiago de los Caballeros which was the seat of the Spanish government at the time in Central America. As a consequence, the town was relocated from the skirts of the Agua volcano (Guatemala) to the central part of the Panchoy valley, almost 10 kilometres away. Unfortunately, two centuries later, the new city of Santiago de los Caballeros was destroyed by a series of massive earthquakes in 1773 which provoked many fatalities, injuries, as well as losses of many kinds. As in the previous case, the Government decided to relocate the city to another valley farther away from the active Fuego volcano, and supposedly, farther away from earthquakes. Unfortunately, the destruction of villages, towns, and cities in Central America has been a rather frequent occurrence due to the location of Central America in a highly seismic zone which gives rise to active volcanoes. The situation is worsened when considering the fact that the region lies on the path of hurricanes which provoke floods and massive landslides.