Last November, two major hurricanes hit Honduras, one right after the other.

The ensuing flood in that country's Sula Valley was so devastating locals call it La Yena, literally the fill.

But some were rescued, but some stood on top of their houses for two to three days without food or water in the hot sun.

We thought it was a flood like something out of the Bible.

Blanca, Marisa, Balegas, a 41-year-old tortilla seller lives in Sudaplaneta, an impoverished area with a lot of gangs, where they're still digging out of dried mud.

It was terrible. Dead chickens, dogs, pigs, cows, floating in the water.

That kind of devastation has cut the country's GDP in half, and the coming months, millions are expected to face acute food insecurity.

And it's one more reason why so many people are just leaving.

We know people who have lost their jobs because the restaurant they work was underwater.

Kurt Allen Verbeek co-founded a nonprofit, the association for a more just society which has been working in Honduras for decades.

I know people who lost jobs because the owner of the restaurant died of COVID.

All of those things come by and your kids aren't in school. You don't have money to pay internet to have your kids in school.

The gangs are threatening your kids.

Families have been pushed to the breaking point.

In the border town of Corinto, NPR spoke to 32-year-old Luis Alberto Enrique, a farmer who says he's given up.

Between the storms, the gangs, and his maker crops, he's leaving with his family in two small daughters.

They're trying to get to Houston, where he has relatives.

Yes, yes, you were informed by the news. We'll see the news.

I heard on the news that there is chaos at the US-Mexico border, but I understand that they're not deporting families.

Hopefully we'll get there eventually, even if it takes us one, two, three months.

We put ourselves in the hands of US laws. And of God.

Consider this. For many migrants, the long journey to the US is an act of desperation.

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