Tegucigalpa, July 4 (RHC)-- The Secretariat of State in the Offices of Risk Management and National Contingencies of Honduras has declared the "Green Alert" (preventive) in 14 of the 18 departments of the country due to a deluge that is expected to bring abundant rains and thunderstorms

The meteorological authorities of the Central American country specified that the alert will be maintained for 48 hours in the departments of Copán, Santa Bárbara, Ocotepeque, Intibucá and Lempira (west); Yoro and Cortés (north); La Paz, Comayagua and Francisco Morazán (center); Choluteca and Valle (south); El Paraíso and Olancho (east).

For its part, the Center for Atmospheric, Oceanographic and Seismic Studies (Cenaos), predicted that a trough on the surface and the convergence of wind and humidity coming from the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, will generate "weak to moderate scattered rains and showers".

According to the security institution, the rains will be accompanied by isolated thunderstorms in most of the Central American territory and the highest accumulations will be registered in the west, southwest, south and center of the country.

The agency added that due to the incidence of so much rain, "a certain level of soil saturation that could cause landslides, subsidence and floods" in some regions of the nation's geography is registered.

For this reason, the Secretariat of State in the Offices of Risk Management and National Contingencies, requested the population to follow safety measures, mainly in "vulnerable areas".

Honduras is one of the countries with the highest occurrence of natural disasters and, according to some statistics, the country's vulnerability increased after the devastating hurricane Mitch, at the end of 1998, which also affected Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.