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Cristina storm reveals Guatemala's coastal vulnerability to rising seas
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Disasters & Emergencies

Cristina storm reveals Guatemala's coastal vulnerability to rising seas

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News From a news agency Context piece
  • Coastal towns in southern Guatemala face severe damage from rising sea levels and strong waves, exacerbated by Tropical Storm Cristina.
  • Residents report significant erosion, with the sea reaching cemeteries and undermining coastal roads, threatening tourism-dependent livelihoods.
  • Experts point to a historical deficit in official oceanographic studies, leaving authorities to rely on global projections for assessing the ongoing threat to the entire southern coastline.

The Pacific coast of Guatemala is battling a relentless advance of the ocean, a crisis starkly highlighted by the recent impacts of Tropical Storm Cristina. In Iztapa, a coastal municipality in Escuintla, residents are witnessing the sea consume more than three meters of beach annually, with recent surges reaching inhabited areas and even the local cemetery. The collapse of burial niches has forced the community to exhume and relocate the remains of their deceased.

The sea affects us year after year, but what happened yesterday was very strong.

— Karla FermínA resident of Atitancito describing the impact of the rising sea levels.

"The sea affects us year after year, but what happened yesterday was very strong," said Karla Fermín, a resident of Atitancito, describing the destruction of homes and utility poles due to the rising sea levels. The waves, higher than ever seen before, have caused widespread damage, leaving some coastal roads with precarious, undermined sections. Verónica Florián, another resident, expressed deep concern, noting that the destruction impacts their tourism-based economy and that the storm's effects have amplified the usual yearly damage.

The truth is that we are worried and sad because we survive on tourism and we are losing a bit of it; the sea does this every year, but if we have the help of a storm, it becomes worse than normal and causes more chaos.

— Verónica FloriánA resident of Iztapa expressing concern about the economic impact of coastal erosion.

While the national disaster agency (Conred) has reported 15 affected houses in Atitancito, the problem is a latent phenomenon affecting the entire coastline. The material destruction is compounded by a decades-long deficit in official oceanographic studies in Guatemala. Experts note an almost 80-year lag in research and monitoring of marine dynamics. In the absence of local data, authorities are using global projections and recent anomalies, such as the 2023 El Niño-induced sea level rise, to understand the threat. This phenomenon has impacted populated areas across Escuintla and Santa Rosa provinces, and Conred confirms it remains a latent danger along the entire southern coast and in the Caribbean department of Izabal.

The sea has been affecting us year after year, but yesterday's event was very strong.

— Karla FermínA resident of Atitancito describing the recent surge in sea levels.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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