Guatemalans search for their belongings after landslides hit their town in Tecpan, Guatemala, yesterday. Entire families were missing after a sea of mud, trees and rocks descended on the hill town of Tecpan, west of the capital, Guatemala City, destroying more than 30 flimsy homes. - REUTERS
GUATEMALA CITY (AP):
THE DEATH toll from five days of pounding rains in Central America and Mexico jumped to more than 230 yesterday after rescue workers recovered at least 40 bodies from a landslide in Guatemala.
Officials expected the death to toll to rise even higher as they searched for more than 150 others who were missing following the massive landslide in Solola, a town close to the freshwater reserve of Lake Atitlan, 60 miles (100 kilometres) west of the capital, Guatemala City.
"We took out 40 to 45 bodies today, in addition to the 15 before, and there are still a lot of people to be found, some 150 to 200," said Pedro Mendoza, 25, one of numerous area residents participating in the recovery efforts. "The landslide was Wednesday but because the roads are blocked, no one can get through to help us."
The recovery of the bodies pushed the death toll in the entire region to 211, including 14 people killed earlier this week in Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica, and 13 people who died in three Mexican states.
The current death toll in Guatemala is 79, with the majority of the victims killed in landslides.
For the first time in five days, rains let up yesterday, allowing Guatemalan President Oscar Berger to fly over devastated areas and evaluate damage.
CALL FOR STATE OF EMERGENCY
He asked Congress to declare a state of emergency as rescue workers in Solola reported that two other villages had been buried by landslides, including Las Giraldas, 90 kilometres (55 miles) west of Guatemala City. There, more than a dozen people were working to dig out houses buried when a second hillside collapsed.
In Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's second-most important city 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of the capital, flood waters rose up two metres (6.5 feet) high, destroying hundreds of homes, businesses and public buildings, local firefighters said.
