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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 June 2012
Latin American and Caribbean countries have been affected by many natural disasters in past decades. Earthquakes caused in Peru (1970) approximately 70,000 deaths, in Nicaragua (1972) 5,000 deaths while destroying the capital, Managua, and in Guatemala (1976) 22,000. Hurricanes also wreak havoc: hurricane Fifi in Honduras (1974) with 10,000 deaths, hurricane David (1979), and hurricane Allen in Saint Lucia, Haiti and Jamaica (1980), have amply demonstrated the high vulnerability of these countries to emergency situations. These catastrophes and many other smaller ones required that all resources of the nation, governmental or private, military or civilian, be mobilized in a coordinated manner to meet the emergency needs of the population.