NewsTracker Answers for week of Dec. 07, 2020

Q: Weeks after Hurricanes Eta and Iota struck Central America in quick succession, nearly 100,000 Hondurans are living in shelters. Honduras’ president warns that without international assistance, many of the homeless could flee to the United States. Where is Honduras?

Circle the area on this map


Q: In two weeks in November, the category 4 hurricanes struck within 15 miles of each other on the coast of Nicaragua, which borders Honduras on the ...

A. Northeast

B. Southeast

C. Southwest

D. Northwest


B. Honduras is bordered to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean, to the southwest by El Salvador, west by Guatemala, and to the north by the Caribbean Sea. The storms caused massive floods and landslides across the nations of Central America, which have seen thousands of migrants heading for the United States in recent years.


Q: Hurricanes recently have devastated poor nations all around the Caribbean. What is the poorest nation in the Americas?

A. El Salvador

B. Guatemala

C. Haiti

D. Honduras


C. Haiti has a gross domestic product of only $1,800 per person compared with Honduras and its per capita GDP of $5,600, the second lowest in the Western Hemisphere. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández stressed the link between hurricanes and climate change, suggesting that wealthier countries that emit more greenhouse gases have a debt to pay in the recovery effort.


Q: Since 2008, catastrophic weather disasters have displaced an average of 24 million people each year. And, experts expect those numbers to rise as climate change worsens storms and droughts. Which area is particularly vulnerable?

A. Latin America

B. South Asia

C. Sub-Saharan Africa

D. All of the above


D. A World Bank study predicts that 143 million people in these three most vulnerable regions could be forced from their homes by 2050 because of climate change impacts like desert expansion and sea level rise.


Q: What is the reason most Central Americans give for seeking asylum in the United States?

A. Extreme violence

B. Climate change

C. Political oppression

D. Poverty


A. More than two-thirds of the migrants fleeing Central America’s northern triangle countries – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – experienced the murder, disappearance or kidnapping of a relative before their departure, according to a study by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.