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Governments struggle to reach isolated flood victims
Associated Press
Published October 8, 2005
GUATEMALA CITY - With food and water running out, governments in Central America and Mexico scrambled Friday to reach isolated areas devastated by a week of intense rain, with residents saying panic was starting to grow among survivors.
Mudslides and flooding exacerbated by Hurricane Stan killed 258 people across the region, with Guatemala bearing the brunt of the damage and deaths.
Increasing fears Friday was a strong earthquake that shuddered through Guatemala and El Salvador. The quake caused a rain-damaged highway bridge to collapse in Guatemala and sent thousands of frightened Salvadoran residents into the streets.
There were no immediate reports of injuries from the quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8.
The earthquake struck before residents had even begun to recover from five days of heavy rains, which included Hurricane Stan's landfall on Tuesday in Mexico's Gulf Coast state of Veracruz before it weakened into a tropical depression.
"We need food, clothing, medicine and help," said Lucas Ajpus, a former firefighter coordinating rescue efforts in Santiago Atitlan, the Guatemalan city near landslides that hit four villages.
At least 50 bodies have been recovered, bringing Guatemala's death toll to 160. Workers continued to search for more than 100 missing people.
In El Salvador, the death toll rose Friday to 67 after two people were buried in separate mudslides, said Cesar Marroquin of the National Emergency Committee.
Eight people have died in the Mexican state of Chiapas, while civil protection authorities reported six deaths in the state of Veracruz, and three in Oaxaca.
Meanwhile, an intense rainstorm triggered a landslide that buried part of a shantytown on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Medellin, Colombia, killing at least 26 people, many of them children, officials said Friday.
Rescuers on Friday recovered the bodies and continued digging through the mud as nearly 30 people remained missing, said Claudia Helena Velez, a municipal official in Bello, 160 miles northwest of Bogota.
The landslide, which brought mud, trees, garbage and rocks sweeping through the town of Bello, occurred late Thursday after five hours of heavy rains that loosened the earth in the boulder-covered mountain above the town.
[Last modified October 8, 2005, 01:27:10]
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