• Environmental Refugees – Interviews by Charlie Furnis In October 2005 Hurricane Stan swept through Central America causing destruction on a massive scale. Torrential rains saturated steep volcanic hillsides and destabalised land already made vulnerable by severe deforestation....

  • Following the mudslide, the survivors from Panabaj and Tzanchaj were relocated to Chiqisis, a village in the mountains, or housed in refugee camps. 3 years later, they were still there. Living in a state of limbo, in constant fear of further mud slides, facing severe poverty, crop fai...

  • “We’ve had to move up here because it’s not safe in Tzanchaj. The houses there were built next to very steep land, when it rained heavily the land collapsed and the houses were destroyed. Here it is safer, but up here in Chiqisis, it is a struggle to survive. We have houses, bu...

  • “I live here in the refugee camp with my father and brother and sister. My mother died in the mudslide. We don’t speak the same language as most families here. We are not treated the same” – Maritza Ortiz, 17, Panabaj Refugee Camp, 2007 “We have to share terrible kitche...

  • Environmental Refugees – Interviews by Charlie Furnis

    In October 2005 Hurricane Stan swept through Central America causing destruction on a massive scale. Torrential rains saturated steep volcanic hillsides and destabalised land already made vulnerable by severe deforestation.

    On the 5th October 2005 the villages of Panabaj and Tzanchaj, on the shore of Lake Atitlan, were hit by devastating mudslides . The fast flowing mud poured off the weakened slopes of the surrounding volcanoes. At around 4am it sped through the villages at high speed killing entire families as they slept. The villages were destroyed. 1200 people were buried alive. The search for bodies was called off several days later and the villages were declared mass graves. In Guatemala alone, an estimated 2000 people lost their lives

  • “About 2am the earth started shaking and there was a terrifying noise. We went outside and saw the mud flowing. It was about 20cm high. I went to wake my brother and when I opened the door the mud was flowing inside the house. It came up to his knees.” – Filomena Letitia Perez Guzman, 22, Panabaj Refugee Camp

    The villages, on the shores of Lake Atitlan, were particularly vulnerable. The slopes above the villages had suffered years of over logging and were severely deforested. The ground was loose, exposed and susceptible to land slides.

    Hurricane Stan had hit Latin America with huge force a few days earlier. It triggered mudslides and land slides all over Guatemala and Peru.

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