Difficulties in assisting the victims 2:07
(CNN) -
When it rained, people used to see it as a good omen.
In Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, they now watch with terror the drops that fall from the sky.
After two Category 4 hurricanes this month, communities in these Central American countries have witnessed rivers flooded by torrential rains, crops destroyed, cattle washed away, schools flooded and roads engulfed by landslides.
Death, disease and poverty are likely to follow.
While poor people in rural areas have been the most affected by the succession of Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota, the repercussions of those cyclones are already being felt in the centers of power.
In Guatemala City, anger erupted this weekend in the streets, where protesters set the Congress building on fire, forcing lawmakers to reverse budget cuts to the country's already paralyzed health and education systems.
The consequences of these climate disasters will continue to expand, exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
And they may eventually even reach far away rich countries, as Central Americans desperate and vulnerable by cyclones flee abroad.
Three million affected
Three million people have been affected by Eta and Iota, the Red Cross estimates, and hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated and displaced.
There are dozens of dead and missing.
Add COVID-19 to the tensions in overcrowded evacuation shelters and you have a recipe for another perfect storm.
"The risk of the spread of covid-19 will only increase as more seek refuge in shelters, already crowded with more than 17,500 Guatemalans by the last storm," said Miriam Aguilar, representative in Guatemala of the humanitarian aid organization Mercy Corps, the last week.
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From Honduras, Dr. María Angélica Milla, who specializes in nutrition, had her colleague show CNN a makeshift shelter for evacuees at a school in San Pedro Sula.
There you could see people without masks and without keeping a safe distance.
There were cardboard boxes scattered on the floor, makeshift mattresses for so many families that they lost everything.
They are concerned about possible contagions of covid-19 in shelters 1:32
Some 180 displaced people have taken refuge there, Milla added.
The coronavirus is usually the least of your worries.
Hunger lurks, he said.
The children who depended on the food they were given at school don't even get that, as schools have been closed due to the pandemic and more so now with the hurricanes, he said.
Basic needs such as shelter and access to clean water are the most urgent for many, UNICEF Representative in Honduras Mark Connolly told CNN.
Mirza Yolany Valdez, a full-time mother, lost everything during Hurricane Eta.
Since then she has remained in school in San Pedro Sula with her two children, ages 3 and 11.
"I'm just praying that God gives me strength because it's super sad to go home and have nothing," he told CNN in a video call.
His voice broke and he began to cry.
"With the first hurricane I could not rescue anything and now with the second, less," he explained.
Hurricanes, a possible engine of migration in Latin America
Nicaragua: What follows after the passage of Iota?
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Violence, insecurity, poverty and lack of opportunities have long motivated people to migrate north, where they hope to find a better chance for their lives.
For months, experts have predicted that Covid-19 could create a new wave of migrants trying to reach the United States border.
But the lasting damage from hurricanes Eta and Iota is a reminder that climate change is also a growing driver of migration.
"People don't know where to go now," said Leonardo Pineda, director of a local Honduran NGO, Asociación Juventud Siglo Veintiuno (JUSIVE), in San Pedro Sula.
Pineda told CNN that he has heard many young people talk about migrating.
"No work.
So what will people work on?
They are looking precisely for something to help them grow and in Honduras this is difficult, ”said Pineda.
During the interview, a torrential downpour could be seen and heard in the background, rains that further hamper recovery efforts.
Steve McAndrew, regional deputy director of the Red Cross for the Americas, described in dialogue with CNN the scope and extent of the damage from hurricanes as "truly overwhelming."
"We know from history, we know from Hurricane Mitch and other major disasters like this that it only increases people's desperation to seek better opportunities elsewhere," he said.
He was referring to the 1998 cyclone that was so deadly that it became the basis for a special immigration status for Hondurans and Nicaraguans in the United States.
LOOK: The 5 worst hurricanes in the history of Central America
"This can definitely increase all of these pressures for people to move," he said.
A man walks along the beach after Hurricane Iota struck in Bilwi, Nicaragua, on November 17, 2020.
'Famine is coming'
In a meeting last week, the president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, and the president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, called on the richest nations in the world that contribute directly to climate change to help their countries recover from the hurricanes with financial assistance.
This, in turn, would help mitigate a large migratory flow north, Giammattei said.
"Every time there is a natural disaster as a result of climate change, we go into debt," Giammattei added.
"This has caused a vicious cycle in which we get into debt, rebuild, destroy, get into debt, rebuild and destroy again."
LEE: Hurricanes maintain their strength inland as the planet warms, a study finds
"Central America and Honduras are among the regions of the world most affected by climate change," said Hernández.
Dr. Milla has no doubt that cyclones will launch new waves of migration.
It is the only option some have to survive the "apocalyptic" devastation, he says.
"The famine is coming," he told CNN.
"A lot of famine is coming because the last harvest was lost, there is no capacity to store anything, (and) prices were already skyrocketing," he explained.
"I don't want to think about what goes through the minds of those who lost everything," added Milla.
Prepare for the waves.
Latin America Hurricane Eta Hurricane Iota