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Displaced Hondurans turn to South Florida to rebuild lives

By Sandra Hernandez
Staff Writer

September 2, 2005

Weary and homeless, Hondurans from New Orleans began trickling into South Florida this week after Hurricane Katrina devastated what was once the largest Honduran community in the United States, according to local groups.

"We are starting to see license plates and family members arrive," said Jose Cerrato, president of the Honduran Organization of Palm Beach. "Everyone is sick with worry.

Cerrato's own brother evacuated to Houston and arrived Tuesday in South Florida, where he plans to live. Cerrato counts himself among the fortunate who tracked down family. Thousands in South Florida and in Central America have yet to learn the whereabouts of loved ones or whether they survived.

Before Katrina hit, an estimated 120,000 Hondurans lived in the New Orleans area, according to Carlos Siercke, the Honduran consul general in Miami. They sent between 20 percent and 30 percent of the $1.3 billion in remittances to the impoverished Central American nation, devastated in 1998 by Hurricane Mitch.

Now refugees themselves, many are expected to begin new lives in Florida, where 60,000 Hondurans already live. Many in South Florida's Honduran community arrived in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch and are living in a kind of immigration limbo, while others crossed illegally and hold down construction or farm jobs.

"I would say the Honduran community here is going to grow significantly," Siercke said. "I have heard of cases of families who are urging their relatives in Louisiana and Mississippi to come here. They are telling them, `Don't stay in a hotel. Come live with me.'"

Among those expecting to take in the displaced is Lizette Hawet, a Miami resident awaiting word from a friend forced to leave New Orleans.

"She called to tell me she wanted to come here but was stuck because the roads are flooded," Hawet said. "I haven't been able to reach her. We don't know where anyone is."

Juanita Flores, also of Miami, received a similar call. "My friend called me on Tuesday and told me her first-floor apartment was gone and she needed a place to live" Flores said. "She made it out with some friends from the college she was attending and were trying to get to Atlanta. But I don't know where she is now. And I have another friend in the same situation who I expect will show up soon with his wife and kids."

Indeed, Honduran families in South Florida felt the misery and death spread by Katrina as they frantically tried to find missing loved ones.

"The biggest problem is so many people in Honduras can't find out anything," Cerrato said. "You have people who are undocumented and were afraid to go to the shelters."

Beyond the human toll, Katrina also brought a terrible economic cost. The loss of remittances sent by those in New Orleans will be "devastating,"adding up to more than $40 million annually.

"Remittances represent about 10 percent of that country's total income, and that is a conservative estimate," said Manuel Orozco, a remittance expert with the Inter American Dialogue, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. "This is another blow on top of Mitch."

Other consulates in Miami also tried to find their foreign nationals.

The Nicaraguan Consulate, which serves Louisiana, was preparing to help track about 5,000 nationals who lived there, but the search had to wait for the floodwaters to subside.

"Right now we are just trying to find those who may have fled to Houston or Baton Rouge," said Jose Velazquez, the Nicaraguan consul general in Miami. "I will try and send someone there to help as soon as we have more information, to help provide information to families back home and even homes to those who lost everything.'

Similarly, Honduras sent a special envoy to Baton Rouge to help find its nationals after the New Orleans consulate was destroyed. A toll-free telephone line was set up for families to call in, Siercke said.

Other governments were also stepping in with aid. Venezuela's government donated $1 million through CITGO, a Houston-based company. CITGO is owned by Venezuela's government-run oil company. The donation comes amid mounting tensions between the United States and the oil rich nation. Venezuela is a key fuel supplier to the United States