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The catastrophe that struck Central America in the wake of Hurricane Mitch produced shock at the IDB, particularly among staff members who have worked with the region for many years. Bank staffers have labored long and hard on IDB operations designed to help these countries move forward and create a better life for their people. They worried about the fate of colleagues and friends and lamented the loss of so much of what they had strived to achieve. The experience was particularly moving for members of an IDB emergency mission that arrived in Tegucigalpa just days after the storm. They described scenes and conversations they will never forget. "It was eerie," recalled sanitation specialist Chris Jennings. "People were digging in the mud in places where their homes had stood just days before." At a sports complex where some of the 240,000 city residents left homeless by the storm were being housed, legal specialist Dana Martin found scores of families sleeping on floors and one woman with a television wrapped in a piece of cloth, probably the only possession she was able to save. "It broke your heart just to see that place," he said. But the mission members also discovered a solid vein of strength and optimism beneath the debris the flood waters left behind. "They lost everything," said agriculture specialist Hugo Villarroel, "but they still had a positive spirit. When I talked with them, they seemed happy. I would have been crying." |
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