Last week I arrived in El Salvador to find myself in the midst of a tragedy. This country, and especially the communities of the Lower Lempa River, are now assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Mitch.

This letter is a description of my tour of the affected areas and conversations with the "damnificados," or damaged, of this region. American press has focused on the plight of Honduras and Nicaragua, but people from this area need help, too. Food and water, medicine, clothing, construction materials, and money are needed desperately. Although aid has arrived in the country, there are reports of government stockpiling of necessities and politicization of aid by the central government's National Emergency Commission (COEN). In addition, the Meteorological Center of El Salvador has publicly denounced COEN, because they warned COEN as early as Oct. 25 of the imminent storm, yet COEN did nothing to alert or evacuate the population.

Many people of the Lower Lempa, which includes the departments of Usulutan and La Paz, have lost everything: animals, houses, clothes, and crops. Many in La Paz have been separated from their families, who may be scattered among the many refugee centers in Zacatecoluca, the capital of La Paz, or the surrounding countryside. Some in Usulutan have tried to return to their villages, only to find nothing remaining. Currently there are about 4,000 people in the area at different schools and buildings that now serve as refugee centers. At one of these schools, Metropolitan Saul Flores, everyone had a different story of how they arrived.

Cruz Luna, 68, from Rancho Grande, told me how flood waters began rising in his house very quickly during the evening. "I tied the bed to the ceiling of my house and we sat on that, but soon we needed to break through the roof to avoid drowning." His family of seven sat on the roof for three days, and were finally rescued by helicopter. "I have lost everything," he said.

One woman, Ala Evelyn Moreno, from Hacienda La Lucia, said "I was up to my neck in water and began crying for help. Eventually a boat came to find me and I made it out." Many people explained that the water came too fast for them to get out, or that they assumed that the water and the rain would stop coming. But most found themselves up to their neck or scrambling to their roofs to avoid drowning.

Alfredo Tobare of San Carlos Lempa faced the same situation as many others: "My animals have drowned, and crops, maize, and beans are all ruined."

The water came from the Rio Jiboa, the Rio Acahuape (which branches off from the Rio Lempa), and the many other smaller rivers that flow towards the Pacific in this region. These rivers flooded their banks and in some places joined to create vast flooded areas.

In Usulutan the source of the flood was the Rio Lempa, the largest river in El Salvador. Twenty-four thousand people have been displaced. Again, homes, crops and animals were lost. Where the Lempa enters the Pacific, a series of islands was inundated and houses have disappeared. Some islands are covered in mud, the houses buried four feet deep. I visited one of these islands by boat, Isla Espiritu Santo, where people are returning but nothing exists. One horrifying fact is that the electric utility operating on the Lempa waited until the last moment to open its floodgates, causing a flash flood of 6,000 cubic meters of water per second, maximizing damage to the communities downstream.

As I traveled in affected areas, such as the towns of Pichiche and San Jose de la Montagne, a horrible smell of sewage was pervasive everywhere. Dirty river water had contaminated all food and potable water from wells, which now out of use indefinitely. People desperately need clean water.

At Saul Flores, hundreds of people are crammed into classrooms and hallways. One room contains a pile of clothes and other donations from the people of Zacatecoluca. But considering how many people are here, there is frighteningly little food and medicine. The coordinators of the center explained to me early in the morning on Saturday that they had enough food for breakfast that day, but not for lunch or dinner.

A depressingly small amount of aid has arrived to these places, despite the shipments now coming in to the airport from Mexico, Spain, and other countries. All aid is being channeled through the central government in El Salvador. Many people I visited said that Zacatecoluca and other areas known to be supportive of the FMLN are being neglected. I've seen reports that aid distributed by COEN thus far sometimes bears the stamp of the ARENA party or is colored in the red, white, and blue of that party. Other reports claim that deliverers of aid sometimes dress in ARENA garb. For this reason, refugee center coordinators are requesting that food or money be steered away from the central government, and sent directly to municipalities or NGOs that work in these areas.

This region, along with San Miguel, was the hardest hit in El Salvador. This is the same land that was redistributed to refugees and ex-combatants in 1992 as a condition of El Salvador's negotiated peace settlement. After the war, all of these people were thrown together into an area with no infrastructure and very little support from the government. They responded by forming a coordinating committee with representatives from each village in the region to try to address their problems. These people have done so much to rebuild their lives in the six years since the Peace Accords were signed, only to have it swept away in the flood.

I came to El Salvador with the intent of working on a project in this area involving the treatment of sewage and the revitalization of a river in the countryside. But this area is now facing new and more profound problems. The people here are very well organized, but need help to rebuild again after this disaster.

The primary need is money, which can be used to buy necessities (food, seeds, and medicines) here in El Salvador at a cheaper price than in the United States. But material aid is also desperately needed. The principle sicknesses here are conjunctivitis of the eyes, respiratory ailments, funguses and other skin diseases resulting from immersion in contaminated water, diarrhea, broken bones, and diseases transported by insects. Here are the needed medicines:

Antibiotics: Amoxicillin (Tablets and Powder), Ampicillin (Tablets and Powder), Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (Tablets and Powder), and Cloramphenicol (Drops).

Analgesics: Acetaminophen (Tablets and Liquid) and Ibuprofen.

Other: oral serum to treat diarrhea, antimalarial medicines, antihistamines for allergies, multivitamins, antifungal cream (all types), bandaids, gauze, anti-bacterial wipes, cotton, rubbing alcohol, equipment for minor surgery (surgical scissors, etc.), anti-tetanus vaccinations, kits for analyzing contaminated water, and chlorine tablets and drops for sterilizing drinking water.

Seeds for growing beans and maize are needed. Pumps for water treatment and well remediation are necessary, along with construction materials to replace houses swept away in the floods and landslides. Clothes are also wanted. Furthermore, help is needed in the long term, as rebuilding and growing crops will take some time. Everything helps, even the smallest donation.

Cash donations can be wired to the Salvadoran Institute for Technology, Environment, and Self-Sufficiency (ITAMA) at: Fundacion Para El Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnologia, Cuenta Dlar #12306-20042, Banco Cuscatlan, El Salvador, America Central. Materials should be sent through TACA Airlines and addressed to: ITAMA, Colonia Miralvalle, Calle Motocros #39, San Salvador, El Salvador, Central America, phone: 011-503-284-3914, fax: 011-503-284-4673. Contact TACA in the United States regarding shipments; if you are going to send materials, also contact ITAMA via phone, fax, or the below e-mail addresses to let them know. The U.S. non-profit Foundation for Self-Sufficiency, 501(c)(3) tax ID #74-2822577, is sending aid down to the region with the assistance of ITAMA. In the U.S., any tax-deductible donations can be marked for hurricane relief or for the Zone of Peace and sent to the Foundation for Self-Sufficiency at: 11 Lisa Rae, Round Rock, TX 78664. For more information, e-mail: jonathan@ecotope.com or fudecit@es.com.sv.