- Hurricaine Milch has occured on November 1998, having tremendous devastating effects on two countries of Central America - Nicaragua and Honduras;
- It has destoryed both the infrastructure and vital argricultural regions; the deaths were estimated at over 10,000 people, and the spread of diseases as well as landlides and floods was quite wide;
- While the damages following a hurricaine on the Reichter scale are predictable, the consequences of it were still intensified by deforestation. Research has shown that the landslides have mainly occured on hills which were bare of vegetation, since the roots of trees bind the soil and keep it together, acting as an anchor. So in the abscence of trees, the heavy rainfall just washed away the soil, which resulted in mudslides and overflooding of the rivers, for there were no roots to effectively absorb the water;
- In addition trees can be beneficial for farming, since the leaves dropped by the trees can provide nutrients for the soil;
- Despite the outcome of the hurricaine, it is predicted that the forest areas of Central America will be further cleared off, in order to compensate for the agricultural areas lost during the natural disaster of 1998;
Rhett A. Butler; Impact of Deforestation - 1998: Hurricane Mitch; (online article; last viewed on 5th March 2012, at http://rainforests.mongabay.com);
