Earth­quake in Guatemala
The res­cue and relief work in San Mar­cos, Guatemala, a moun­tain­ous region bor­der­ing Mex­i­co that was hit by a 7.4 scale earth­quake claim­ing the lives of at least 52 peo­ple ear­li­er this month, was aid­ed by emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­vid­ed by radio amateurs.
Inter­na­tion­al Ama­teur Radio Union Region 2 Emer­gency Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Coor­di­na­tor, Cesar Pio San­tos HR2P said he was very proud of the work done dur­ing and after the earth­quake on Novem­ber 8, despite the dif­fi­cult times.
Cesar HR2P thanked the mem­bers of the Club de Radiofi­ciona­dos de Guatemala (CRAG) for their out­stand­ing efforts.
He was respond­ing to a report from Mar­co Aure­lio TG8AMP, who was in charge of the emer­gency net­work in the affect­ed area.
About 10,000 hous­es have been affect­ed by the earth­quake with author­i­ties set­ting up 11 res­cue cen­tres for the home­less. It was the worst to hit Guatemala since 1976, when a 7.5 mag­ni­tude earth­quake caused the deaths of about 23,000 peo­ple in one of the worst nat­ur­al dis­as­ters of the time, again helped by the work of ama­teur radio.
— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU R3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions with Cesar Pio San­tos HR2P.