GUATEMALA CITY – 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 yesterday.
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 yesterday 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, Governor Erick de Leon said.
“The department has collapsed. 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,” de Leon said.
In the tiny village of Parajbei, a slide smothered three homes and killed 11 people. (AP)
