Widespread deforestation in Central America has contributed to the devastation triggered by Hurricane Mitch, particularly in Honduras and Nicaragua, according to experts.
With an average of 48 hectares (118 acres) of forest lost every hour in the region, they say many mountainsides no longer have trees to hold back landslides or stop the rain from sweeping away topsoil and dumping it into rivers.
"The rain that fell in deforested regions could not be absorbed. Instead it carried the soil into rivers, depositing sediments in riverbeds.
This diminished the rivers' capacities and worsened the floods," said Mr Juan Blas of the Central American Council on Forests and Protected Zones. Torrential rains drenched the region for a week, flooding rivers, which swept away hundreds of kilometres of rail tracks and roads, entire villages and thousands of hectares of crops.
They also caused massive landslides, including one on the south flank of the Casitas volcano in north-eastern Nicaragua that buried five villages and killed more than 2,200 people.
The total death toll has been estimated at 11,100, with 15,300 still missing across Central America.
Honduras and Nicaragua lost most of their crops and much of their forests.
At the best of times, between 80,000 and 108,000 hectares (200,000 and 270,000 acres) of tropical forests disappear every year in Honduras.
In neighbouring Nicaragua the figure is between 100,000 and 120,000 hectares, according to environmental organisations.
In both countries, deforestation is mainly carried out by multinational companies, including banana producers and timber industries.
And, with the best land held by multinationals and wealthy farmers, many in this impoverished region chop down trees on the flanks of mountains and volcanoes to cultivate a small parcel of land. When the soil no longer produces enough, they move a little higher, chopping down a few more trees to grow the corn and beans they need to feed their families.
"The case of Casitas was foreseeable. Poor peasants deforested its flanks without respecting any rule or taking into consideration the fragility of the soil and the slopes. Unknowingly, they dug their own graves," said an environmentalist, Mr Jaime Incer.
The practice of burning forested areas to clear land for cultivation also contributes to deforestation, as does the widespread use of wood for cooking fuel in a region where only a minority has access to electricity. In Honduras, 59 per cent of city residents and 95 per cent of those who live in the countryside cook on wood fires.
"If we continue to cut down our forests at this rhythm, we will not have a single tree left by 2020," one Nicaraguan conservationist said.
Guided by the rising stench of putrefaction, rescuers in Tegucigalpa searched for bodies in the polluted waters of Choluteca River, which crosses the Honduran capital. The stink has pervaded much of the city, invaded by buzzards that feed on the flesh of the dead.
A torrential river that swept everything in its path during Hurricane Mitch, Choluteca is now a stagnant cesspool, filled with fallen trees, rocks and mud.
Officials estimate that 180 people died and 860 were missing in Tegucigalpa.