World

Honduras. Both channels began these reports with asummary of the devastation caused by the hurricane:Newscaster: Four months after Central America wasdevastated by Hurricane Mitch, the government ofHonduras has only now completed its final assessment ofthe damage. 5,000 people were killed in the storm, theworst in the area for two centuries, and a quarter of amillion are still homeless. Much of Honduras’ industryhas been destroyed, with 90% of its principle export crop,bananas, lost. (BBC1: 10.2.99, 2100)Newscaster: Last Autumn here on News at Ten, we werecarrying reports from Central American theunforgettable impact of Hurricane Mitch. Honduras inparticular took a terrible battering. Thousands werekilled and hundreds of thousands left homeless. Roadsand railways were washed away, banana plantationsflattened. The outlook for an already poor people lookedhopeless. (ITN: 2.3.99)These summaries were followed by an introductorycomment on the progress made over the previous threeor four months:Newscaster: Our international businesscorrespondent.... looks at the country’s attempt atreconstruction (BBC1: 10.2.99, 2100)Newscaster: So four months on from the hurricane,what hope is there for Honduras. (ITN:2.3.99, 2200)Both reports then included pictures from twoseparate schools in Honduras, indicating that there hadbeen no school for these children to attend in recentmonths. The fact that the children were now able toreturn was viewed as an important step in the recoveryprocess:Reporter: It’s playtime at the school playground inMoralica. But school’s been out for three months nowsince Hurricane Mitch reduced the entire town to rubbleand to dust. This community and the whole of Hondurasis salvaging what it can from the wreckage. (BBC1:9.2.99, 1900)Reporter: For the first time in four months the childrenof Honduras have gone back to school. Here in the capitalTegucigalpa they are regaining some semblance ofnormality. Remarkable when you remember whatripped through their lives such a short time ago. (ITN:2.3.99, 2200)Both channels included footage of local families orindividuals who had been directly affected by thehurricane. BBC1 began and ended the report fromHonduras on 10.2.99 with shots of ‘Noah, Rose and theirfamily’ who had returned to where their home wasdestroyed, on the riverbank in Tegucigalpa. While thefamily themselves did not speak, the following commentwas made by the reporter:Reporter: Three months after Hurricane Mitch they’reonly beginning to rebuild their lives. For this family andthis country it will take many years yet to recover fromnature’s most savage assault on Central America in twocenturies. (BBC1: 10.2.99, 2100)ITN returned to an island they had previously visitedat the time of the original devastation, showing how theinhabitants had started down ‘the long road toreconstruction.’ This report included shots of oneindividual makeshift hut, with a comment from onefamily member stating that he thought it would take tenyears to return to they way things were. Footage of theisland showing it stripped of vegetation was followed bya current shot of a lush green hill. A similar comparisonwas then made of a banana farm on the island:Reporter: This is how we found one farm four monthsago. The banana plants rotting under feet of mud and silt.These are the same fields today. (plants growing) JasonGreen the farm manager had feared this land wouldnever be replanted – that the owners Chiquita bananaswould not want to make the investment. Instead at a costof hundreds of millions of dollars, the fields are beinglevelled, drainage ditches redug and by next year therewill be bananas here again. (ITN: 2.3.99, 2200)While the reporter commented further on positivedevelopments including the reconstruction of thecapital’s bridge and the rapid construction of temporaryhousing there, it concluded:Reporter: Honduras was a poor country before thestorm. It is poorer now. It still needs help. But it has madea tremendous start in helping itself. (ITN: 2.3.99, 2200)All three reports included statements fromgovernmental ministers or the president. Each commentmade a separate point about the impact of the hurricane,depending on the specific remit of the spokesperson. TheHousing Minster commented on housing andinfrastructure as a priority:Roberto Flores, Housing Minister: Imagine a countrythat has been totally devastated. Imagine a country thatnow additionally it has to reconstruct the infrastructure,the road networks, telecoms. We have to recover thehousing that was lost. A third of the population wasdirectly affected. It’s really a major challenge. (ITN:2.3.99, 2200)62 DFID – July 2000