By Jill Replogle
Catholic News Service

NAHUALATE, Guatemala (CNS) -- A group of men and children unrolled a banner along the side of the highway in southern Guatemala: "Here we need help. Affected area!"

On the other side of the highway, trucks lined up for nearly a mile, waiting for a major bridge to open.

This dirt-road neighborhood in the town of Nahualate was affected when the Nahualate River overflowed its banks, filling houses with water and burying cars, mattresses and crops under several feet of silt. The river, swollen with rain left by Hurricane Stan, also took out the Bailey Bridge connecting the southwestern Guatemalan coast to the rest of the country.

On Oct. 13, eight days after the flood, relief workers were still struggling to get food, clothing and medicine to needy communities. Though many of those forced into shelters by the storm had returned home, experts said recovery would be a long process, as most of the victims already lived in precarious situations.

"We can intervene in the short term, but these people will take one, two, even five years to recuperate," said Odet Abascal, who heads Catholic Relief Services' emergency team in the department of Suchitepequez, where Nahualate is located. CRS is the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency.

Large sections of western Guatemala had been cut off from food, fuel and other basic needs for more than a week, as authorities struggled to repair bridges wiped out by rivers and roads blocked by landslides.

"The food is all gone in the stores and supermarkets," said Abascal, referring to the departmental capital of Mazatenango. Parts of San Marcos department, one of the worst-hit areas, still had not received food or medical aid.

After more than a week, the death toll stood at 654 with another 600 missing. Some 550 of the fatalities were caused by landslides, mostly in the Guatemalan highlands, while others were victims of floods and storm-related accidents. Medical workers worry that deaths could increase, especially if disease sets in.

Many residents and church workers said this was the worst natural disaster they've ever experienced.

"This storm was much more serious than Hurricane Mitch," said Bishop Pablo Vizcaino Prado of Suchitepequez-Retalhuleu, vice president of the Guatemalan bishops' conference. Hurricane Mitch, which hit Central America in 1998, affected some 750,000 people in Guatemala. More than 3 million Guatemalans are estimated to have been affected by Hurricane Stan.

Many of the displaced were daunted by the idea of going back to their vulnerable homes.

"We're scared of returning because the river is still threatening to overflow," said Elsa Marina Gonzalez, a 27-year old Nahualate resident with four children. Others have little to go back to.

Ana Sac Cox, 52, said her tin-roof, scrap-wood house frequently flooded, even before Stan.

"I'm not going to say it's because of the hurricane; that's the way my house has always been -- I need help," she said.

At a shelter in Chicacao, near Nahualate, she and other, mostly single women said they hoped that the disaster would bring some attention to the basic needs they had even before the storm damaged their homes.

"God willing, the government will help us with a little food and clothing," said Vilma Gomez Estrada, a widow with five children. The youngest was 10 days old when the flood forced them to flee their home.

Gomez Estrada said she earns around $2 per day washing clothes; half of that money goes for her rent.

Millions of dollars in international aid have been pledged by the United States and other countries to help relieve the crisis and help rebuild Guatemala and neighboring countries, including El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Mexico.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops