During the second week of October 1998, a tropical wave moved through West Africa and off the coast on 10 October. This tropical wave would become the one of the deadliest and most costly hurricane’s ever seen in Central America, Hurricane Mitch.

On 29 October the hurricane’s center made landfall 130 km (81 mi) east of La Ceiba, Honduras, as a weakened hurricane with winds of 158 km/h (98 mph) and an associated storm surge of 3.6 meters (12 ft). For the next week, the system moved very slowly through Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Belize, and El Salvador.

The effects of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras...