Ida kills 130 in El Salvador

2009-11-09 19:13

San Salvador - Floods and landslides left at least 130 people dead in El Salvador on Monday after a late-season hurricane ravaged parts of Central America and took aim for the United States.

Landslides and overflowing rivers carried away houses, while a raging torrent ripped through an entire section of one town. Some of the bodies were taken to a chapel and covered in mud-caked sheets.

"All we heard in the morning was loud noise," Arnoldo Paz, a resident of Verapaz in the central region of the country, told AFP.

"It was a torrent of water and mud that swept away everything in its path. All I could do was tell my wife to grab the kids and flee."

He said his house had been swept away by the current.

Although Hurricane Ida did not hit El Salvador directly, it brought heavy rain that affected the entire region. The storm is crossing the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, heading toward the United States.

President Mauricio Funes declared a state of emergency late on Sunday due to rains and flooding in the Pacific coast country of about seven million people.

Sad day for the country

"Today is a very sad day for the country and its government, in fact it is one of the most tragic days in memory," Funes said in a televised address to the nation.

Civil Protection Service Director Jorge Melendez said on Monday the death toll had risen to 130 from 124, and that more than 10 000 people were in shelters, with more than 1 700 homes damaged or destroyed and 1 400 in high-risk conditions.

Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez sought to reassure his compatriots by saying El Salvador was not facing the tragedy alone, and that international help was on the way.

"We have heard the voices of solidarity from many countries, and the first shipments of aid are about to arrive," Martinez said.

He said the countries and organisations that had offered assistance included Cuba, Japan, Panama, Venezuela and Guatemala, as well as the European Union and the United Nations.

Heavy downpours have lashed the country since Thursday, causing mudslides and flooding in various areas. Most of the deaths have occurred in the areas of San Salvador, La Libertad, Cuscatlan, La Paz and San Vicente.

State of emergency

The president said the state of emergency will allow his government access to special funds necessary to provide assistance to disaster areas. But he stopped short of saying how much money would be spent to help victims and repair the damage.

Melendez said the rains were also caused by a pocket of low atmospheric pressure that had formed over the region as the hurricane, now a category one storm, approached from the Caribbean.

Melendez added that "there could be more fatalities" in the eastern regions of Verapaz and Tepetitan.

In Tepetitan, landslides and overflowing rivers carried away some 30 houses, authorities said. Some residents had agreed to evacuate the area, but a number "refused to leave their homes," according to Mayor Ana Jovel.

In Verapaz, 114km south east of the capital San Salvador, officials reported a raging torrent of mud, rocks and tree trunks ripping through a whole section of the town, burying houses and cars.

A dozen bodies of victims were taken from the devastation to a local chapel and covered with white sheets, caked with mud, as they awaited identification by relatives.

El Salvador has been on a state of alert since heavy rains associated with Ida struck the region and destroyed some 930 homes in neighbouring Nicaragua, leaving some 13 000 people homeless.

Torrential rains have also hit the neighbouring nations of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.

No victims or major damage have been reported either in Honduras or Mexico, but about 100 homes have been damaged by flooding in Guatemala, prompting the evacuation of at least 200 people there.

- AFP