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Topic: UPDATE:600+ Dead / Hundreds missing in Central America after Storm (200,000 Homeless)
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RaptureRH
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Member # 5120
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posted
Sunday October 9, 12:27 AM
Death toll surges to 610 in wake of Tropical Storm Stan
Mudslides and floods sparked by Tropical Storm Stan have killed 508 people in Guatemala alone, a Guatemalan official said, bringing to 610 the number killed when the storm lashed Central America and Mexico with heavy, unrelenting rains.
The previous death toll in Guatemala was set at 176 on Friday, when rescuers discovered 36 bodies in Solola Department west of the capital, President Oscar Berger said, noting that hundreds of Guatemalans were still missing.
The storm has also killed 67 people in El Salvador, 24 in Mexico and 11 in Nicaragua, authorities in those countries said. Tens of thousands were left homeless across the region.
Stan slammed ashore as a hurricane in the Mexican state of Veracruz early Tuesday but began pounding northern Central America with rain on October 1, with Guatemala taking the hardest blow.
Berger had warned Guatemalans on Friday to prepare for greater losses.
"We are going to have unpleasant surprises. There are many missing, many landslides, towns cut off," he said.
Most of those killed in Guatemala were indigenous people who lived along the banks of Lake Atitlan, in the west of the country. The area was buried in massive mudslides, as tonnes of mud poured down the sides of the mountains surrounding the lake.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/051008/1/3viek.html
Posts: 163 | From: Houston TX | Registered: Sep 2005
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RaptureRH
Advanced Member
Member # 5120
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posted
This storm, and the ones reported in China are every bit as damaging as Katrina...
Posts: 163 | From: Houston TX | Registered: Sep 2005
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RaptureRH
Advanced Member
Member # 5120
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posted
250+ Dead / Hundreds missing in Central America after Storm (200,000 Homeless)
Rescuers are continuing their search for hundreds of people missing after mudslides caused by Tropical Storm Stan hit Central America and Mexico.
The death toll in Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and southern Mexico has reached 254 amid fears that it will rise further.
Reports from worst-hit Guatemala say hundreds are still missing. In one town alone, 50 died in a mudslide.
More rain, blocked roads and collapsed bridges are hampering rescue efforts.
Across the region, an unknown number of people remain trapped in their houses, correspondents say.
Entire villages have been completely wiped out by landslides and flash floods.
KNOWN DEATH TOLL
Guatemala - 156
El Salvador - 65
Mexico - 17
Nicaragua - 10
Honduras - 4
Costa Rica - 2
Some 200,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.
Stan slammed ashore as a Category One hurricane in southern Mexico on Tuesday.
Despite being downgraded to a tropical depression by the end of the day, it triggered major flooding and landslides in the region.
State of emergency
Guatemala has so far recorded at least 146 dead.
The country's civil protection agency said 50 bodies were recovered from a town on the edge of Santiago Atitlan in the Mayan highlands, popular with Western visitors.
Reports in the local media say many people are still missing in the town after a mudslide.
Outside emergency teams only reached the town on Friday, and locals said they feared dozens more had died, trapped under the mud.
"There are no words for this. I have only tears left," teacher Manuel Gonzalez, whose school was destroyed, told the Reuters news agency.
"There were only houses here, for as far as you could see... It makes you lose hope," Mr Gonzalez said. "There are no children left, there are no people left."
In Quezaltenango, the second most important city, people are still trapped in what remains of their homes as flood waters have reached up to two metres (6ft) high, correspondents say.
Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has asked Congress to declare a state of emergency.
Mass evacuation
In El Salvador, at least 65 people are known to have died. Officials said nearly 54,000 others had been evacuated to 370 shelters throughout the country, despite difficulties in travelling along many of the country's roads.
"The ground is saturated and we could have more tragedies," warned Salvadoran Red Cross spokesman Carlos Lopez Mendoza.
Mexico was also struck by the weather system, which has killed at least 17 people and caused at least 30 rivers to burst their banks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4319640.stm
Posts: 163 | From: Houston TX | Registered: Sep 2005
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