Storm kills 142 in Central America
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Flooding and landslides from the season's first tropical storm have killed at least 142 people and left thousands homeless in Central America, officials said Monday.
Dozens of people are still missing and emergency crews are struggling to reach isolated communities cut off by washed-out roads and collapsed bridges caused by Tropical Storm Agatha.
The sun emerged Monday in hardest-hit Guatemala, where officials reported 118 dead and 53 missing. In the department of Chimaltenango -- a province west of Guatemala City -- landslides buried dozens of rural Indian communities and killed at least 60 people, Gov. Erick de Leon said.
''The department has collapsed,'' de Leon said. ''There are a lot of dead people. The roads are blocked. The shelters are overflowing. We need water, food, clothes, blankets -- but above all, money.''
[...]
In El Salvador, at least 179 landslides have been reported and 11,000 people were evacuated. The death toll was nine, President Mauricio Funes said.
About 95 percent of the country's roads were affected by landslides, but most remain open, Transportation Minister Gerson Martinez said.
The Lempa River, which flows to the Pacific, topped its banks and flooded at least 20 villages, affecting some 6,000 people, said Jorge Melendez, director of the Civil Protection Agency.
Officials warned that the Acelhuate River, which cuts through San Salvador, was running at dangerously high levels and threatened to spill over into the capital's streets.
Agatha made landfall near the Guatemala-Mexico border Saturday as a tropical storm with winds up to 45 mph (75 kph). It dissipated the following day over the mountains of western Guatemala.
The rising death toll is reminding nervous residents of Hurricane Mitch, which hovered over Central America for days in 1998, causing flooding and mudslides that killed nearly 11,000 people and left more than 8,000 missing and unaccounted for.
Rescue efforts in Guatemala have been complicated by a volcanic eruption Thursday near the capital that blanketed parts of the area with ash and closed the country's main airport. Officials are now allowing helicopters and propeller planes to take off, but commercial flights remain grounded.
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5 comments:
I just heard about this... I have been off the news for most of the day.
My first thoughts and prayers were for the beleaguered people of El Salvador and Guatemala.
Then I thought of your involvement with the former.
Prayers for all.
On the ground report:
I´m at a small village in the Department of Sacatapequez and Saturday afternoon the storm hit like a hurricane (I know as I´ve lived in Puerto Rico for decades and experienced ¨Mitch¨ here too)...the streets were like rivers and the rivers overflowed into streets...in Ciudad Vieja huge boulders roared down the foothills (probably higher too) of the inactive Agua Volcano (many say some of the water in the Agua Volcano drained too)...cars floated down the streets in parts of Antigua...in the campo people needed purified water (we had extra five gallon drums)and many shanty type homes built of tin Lamina flew apart...in this small community about 15 families stayed in the municipal hall after their homes were destroyed...Ciudad Vieja much worse and Chimaltenago horrible...most of the roads are closed and it is cleanup time...there was a light rain last night but nothing pounding as before...probably there will be reports of deadly mudslides as the remote villages report in...always the poor, the ill-prepared die in these ¨natural disasters¨ as they don´t have sturdy homes or backup food and water supplies...no medical assistance and few drugs...always the desperate, the poor, the oppressed (and Arizona Legislators and other Bigots wonder why Latinos clammour for jobs and a chance at emotional and physical well-being...these are hardworking r people not beggars and thieves).
I am glad to hear this from Leonardo- I have been praying for you specifically!
Thank you for your prayers Fran and thank you for thinking of the poor villagers who have lost everything...today there is sunshine and a village crew is working on the clogged and broken waterlines (the water was dirty)...some simply bursted because of the enormous pressure. The rivers are also filled with dirt and hold little water and many are clogged with trees, destroyed homes and other debree...the purified water people came yesterday ahead of schedule and they will come again today...we´re drying out but there was also a huge ¨sink hole¨ reported in Guatemala City...evidently a Security Guard was lost...we´ve had them before and they are terrifying as whole parts of house disappear into giant holes caused from faulty underground sewer lines...brave folks continue on, working, fighting to feed families and stay alive under very difficult economic circumstances...again, these are not thieves, druggies or culprets...they are hardworking people of very, very modest background who often face the unpleasantness of a grim reality with grit, faith, trust and often even a smile.
One more update:
In this village there was one street that was much more flooded than others...all the houses on the street were underwater because the river overflowed and broke away...there was terrible damage but the mayor has sent in cleaning people with heavy machinery to clean up those houses...nobody died here (there are many who have died in neighboring villages). Also, on the other end of this town there was huge flooding...up to shoulder high and friends have lost all their furniture and belongings...they also lost several cars (they are in the States)...they, fortunately, are people who are comfortably well-off but their guardian and family who live on the property lost their home/casita entirely...the neighborhood is made up mostly of very humble homes...some were totally destroyed and some were salvaged more or less...the flooding came fast and nobody was prepared for such a disaster. ´
More will be revealed no doubt in the next days...schools are closed.
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