How did economics contribute to the disaster of Hurricane Mitch?
Many Central American countries, as are many other developing nations, have some amount of international debt. This debt contributes to disasters by crippling the national economy. Restructuring of debt by IMF, US Aid and the World Bank has caused cutbacks in such Ministries as Health and Public Works. Such cutbacks result in an inability of the government to prepare for a disaster such as a hurricane or to deal with the after affects and recovery (Cockburn et al, 1999).
