The storm event:
On October 22, 1998, an Atlantic tropical storm strengthened to hurricane force winds, and on October 26 Hurricane Mitch reached 180 mph winds. That evening, it made landfall at Guanaja, off the Honduras coast, and subjected this island chain to 3 days of hurricane force winds. On October 29 it moved inland along the north coast of Honduras, and moved slowly across Central America the next several days. As much as 60 cm of rain fell through Saturday the 31st. By Friday, Tegucigalpa was being flooded and the Choluteca River was overflowing its banks. Abundant landslides from saturation of soils began to close major roads. The town of Morolica in south Honduras was washed away. The summit crater in Casitas Volacano in NW Nicaragua filled with water and then was breached on the evening of the 30th, sending a wall of water and sediment downslope that killed several thousand people and entombed them in a mass grave (near Posoltega, Nicaragua). San Pedro Sula was under a meter of water. La Ceiba in the north was flooded and out of reach by road due to downed bridges. All major roads in Honduras and much of Nicaragua finally become impassable by the first of the month.
By Monday, November 2, the magnitude of the disaster had become apparent to the outside world. On November 3, a Radarsat pass in SCANSAR narrow beam mode captured. Many of the image maps posted here are from this source, as even frequent repeat optical sensors were heavily constrained by cloud cover during and after the hurricane.
Hurricane Mitch Radarsat and AVHRR Image Maps:
Colonia Del Aguan Region, Honduras, November 3,1998
Lago de Izabal Region, Guatamala, November 3, 1998
Buerto Barrios Region, Guatamala, November 3, 1998
San Pedro Sula Region Honduras, November 3, 1998
November 3 Radarsat-based Image Map, Rio Coco
November 3 Radarsat-based Image Map, SW Honduras
November 3 Radarsat-based Image Map, Central Honduras
Flooded areas compared to population density (experimental)
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