Facing hunger and economic crisis at home, migrants say they have little hope – and no choice but to leave for the US.

Devastating storms and flooding decimated the Guatemalan village of Campur, but some residents have since returned to try to rebuild

Campur, Guatemala – The water from the late November storms had not yet begun to subside in the rural village of Campur when Michelle’s husband, Byron, decided to leave for the United States.

Nestled in a lush valley in the San Pedro Carcha municipality, in northern Guatemala nearly 170 miles (270 kilometers) from Guatemala City, Camper’s streets were flooded by heavy rains brought by Hurricane Eta. At its peak, the water reached 12 meters in some places, submerging houses, possessions, animals, and crops, and leaving only the church steeple above the waterline.

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Michelle and Byron – who did not want their real names used due to concerns it could affect Byron’s immigration status in the US – and their three children were among the nearly 600 families in Campur that lost everything.

“No one thought the water would recede, we did not have hope,” the 27-year-old mother told Al Jazeera as she tended to the family’s store, about her husband’s departure in November, shortly after the town flooded.

But when the waters pulled back in late January, they revealed even more devastation – crops, homes, and livelihoods were decimated – and the Guatemalan government’s promise to provide money for reconstruction and aid to families affected by the storms never materialized.

“The people were confident that the Guatemalan government would give support,” Erick Cu, a resident of Campur who works for the municipality of San Pedro Carcha, told newsmen “But we are entering an economic crisis, and the people have begun to migrate.”

A woman hangs blankets along the side of her house, which was damaged by the November 2020 flooding in Campur

Longstanding issues
Thousands of asylum seekers from Central America and Mexico – including families and young children – have arrived at the US’s southern border in recent months in search of protection, heaping pressure on President Joe Biden to address what some have described as a humanitarian crisis. But to fully understand what is going on, experts say observers must examine the reasons pushing people to make hazardous journeys north.

While there are no exact figures on how many Campur residents have left for the US so far this year, Cu said he knows of at least 20 people who have gone since November. Sebastian Chub, a community leader, estimates between 50 and 60 people have left, and Al Jazeera spoke to a family who said seven members between the ages of 14 and 17 had migrated in the last few weeks.

The effects of the storms on Campur go beyond flooding. The local economy, which relies on the production and sale of coffee and cardamom, also was decimated. Combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, the storms exacerbated longstanding problems fuelling emigration, such as unemployment, poverty, and food insecurity.

“The effects of the pandemic and the hurricanes have worsened the socioeconomic conditions,” Ursula Roldan, an immigration expert at Guatemala’s Rafael Landivar University, told Al Jazeera. “There is also an expectation that with the new Biden administration that migrants will manage to more easily enter the United States, that they will have an opportunity to go in family units.”

Among those who saw hope in the change of government in the US was Walter Choc. He set out from Campur for the US in February, but US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents sent him back to Mexico in early March under Title 42, a Trump-er