The Biggest disaster response network for Guatemala’s floods

3 min readDec 16, 2020

It is a beautiful, clear, sunny day as Alvaro Prado lands his Agusta A109E helicopter and walks into the reception area of the private airfield in Guatemala City. Despite the clear skies, the mountain range between Guatemala City and Coban, the capital of Alta Verapaz and Prado’s intended destination, is thick with clouds that forced him to abort his flight.

Prado, who has amassed more than 4,000 flying hours as a private pilot, does everything he can before aborting. He has even been known to touch down in a field of cows to wait for bad weather to pass.

Since the beginning of November, 80 volunteer pilots from Aeroclub de Guatemala have flown more than 600 hours in helicopters that have been loaned by private individuals and companies, flown on fuel donated by private individuals or the military, in order to supply emergency aid. Access by road is no longer possible as they are flooded and bridges have collapsed.

The Guatemalan Coordinator for the Reduction of Disaster (CONRED) estimates that there are 234 stranded communities.

The president of Aeroclub de Guatemala, Jorge Castellanos Peleaz, also one of the volunteer pilots helping to distribute the food, believes that there are m

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In the days following the disaster, a flurry of international governments, non-governmental organisations, private citizens and volunteers came together to work with the Guatemalan government to distribute emergency aid to these communities.

Most admit that the first few days were complicated and slightly chaotic, but a month into the response a slick distribution network had been formed. But with donations now running dry, it’s an open question as to what the future holds.

Alejandro Sebastian, or “The Spaniard” as he became known, has found himself in a key role assisting the Guatemalan government. His involvement began when he discovered that three helicopters (from government, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and private donations) were delivering aid to the same destination.

Additionally, “not all villages in the Guatemalan Department of Alta Verapaz are officially recognised on maps and so it was particularly challenging to know where to send aid and how much to send,” explains Sebastian.

He quickly realised that he could help the government coordinate the drops. Sebastian, president of local education NGO, CONI, used his contacts at the Ministry of Education to work with the Parents’ Associations of each school, who could then begin to provide information about the size and needs of each community.

Colonel Rony Ramírez Mazariegos, commander of the 6th Infantry Brigade and joint commander (with the Governor of Alta Verapaz) of the Departmental Emergency Operations Center (COED), acknowledges Sebastian’s efforts. We had “close coordination with different NGOs and civil society through [Sebastian]”. He “kept a joint registry of the communities assisted so as not to duplicate efforts,” the colonel explains.

Sebastian quickly formed a network of 16 volunteers and five K’iche’ speakers to staff a call centre. Local Mayan leaders sat side by side with the army to coordinate the distribution.

The Biggest disaster response network for Guatemala’s floods

Written by Muchchar