By Susan Gallagher

Tropical Storm Agatha claimed neither lives nor homes in the immediate area of the diocesan mission in Guatemala, but damage to crops and water systems had the mission staff preparing for a rise in human needs.

Among the countries of Central America, Guatemala was hit hardest by the May 29-30 storm, which in some places dumped 3 feet of rain, bringing floods, mudslides, death and displacement.

In a May 30 report distributed by ABC News, a government disaster relief official said the storm killed 82 people in Guatemala. Mudslides blocked a main road to Santo Tomas la Union, site of the Diocese of Helena mission founded in 1964.

“Other than being able to walk around the slide, people at the mission are isolated,” Mark Frei, the Helena-based mission manager, said a week after the storm. Access to food diminished, and food prices rose.

Frei said increased runoff of water raised concern about contamination of springs that provide drinking water, and there was concern that waterborne illness would rise. The mission medical clinic anticipated stepped-up need for care and medications. Clinic resources already had been tested by an increase in dengue fever and typhoid cases before Agatha struck. A couple of days before the storm, however, the mission doctor said the denguetyphoid problem appeared to be lessening. Frei said the storm severed the main water line that served the mission’s La Asuncion School, which enrolls about 600 children and provides free education for those unable to pay. The storm did not halt classes, however.

“This is Guatemala,” Frei said. “The people serving are missionaries, and they’re able to adjust to the situation.” The mission staff bought temporary pipes for repairs and hoped to obtain money for the purchase of galvanized pipes, which cost more, plus new filter boxes.

Frei said parishes that are mission neighbors were “very heavily hit, and we will join hands.” The Guatemalan government declared two states, Suchitepequez and Solola, disaster areas. The mission serves parts of both.

Parish pastors in the Diocese of Helena have had the option of instituting special collections to support storm aid. Online donations to help the mission clinic may be made via the diocesan website at www.diocesehelena.org. To support Catholic Relief Services online, go to www.crs.org.

As of June 14, $6,000 had been received for the emergency relief effort through the mission, including $1,990 from two parishes’ second collections.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 6, June 18, 2010.