1,400 dead in one Guatemala village
Last Updated Sat, 08 Oct 2005 13:29:27 EDT
CBC News
Hurricane Stan has had a devastating impact on the central american country of Guatemala. A mudslide from torrential rains from Stan killed 1,400 people in the highland village of Panabaj.
Search and rescue workers said there were no survivors. The landslide engulfed the village on Wednesday, burying 1,400 people in the mud, in places more than 40 feet (12 metres) thick.
The landslide that buried several communities near the popular tourist destination of Lake Atitlan was believed to be the worst single disaster in several days of flooding that has hit central america and Mexico.
Rafael Estrada, 63, was working as a custodian on the second floor of a school in Panabaj, one of eight Mayan towns that ring the lake, when the mudslide began. "There was a noise that would scare anyone, a roar," said Estrada, who lost his sister, two nephews and at least two other relatives. "I thought the volcano had erupted. I thought 'it's already taken my family' and I could only wait for it to take me too."
Ramon Noj, a 31 year old farmer, spent Friday digging for his niece, 4-year-old Ana Castro. "We can't allow her to remain here," he said in halting Spanish. "No one must be left behind. Everyone should be together in the cemetery."
Domingo Ramirez, 31, was among a small army of volunteers who grabbed poles, picks or anything else they could get their hands on and joined the search. "These are our brothers, our friends," he said. "And they're dead."
More than 270 Guatemalan communities have been affected by the floods and landslides and at least 30,000 people have moved to shelters.
Many of the poorest communities are carved into coffee-growing regions on the sides of steep volcanoes.
El Salvador
In neighboring El Salvador, 67 people were killed and more than 62,000 had been evacuated because of flooding and landslides.
Mexico
Heavy rains that were already battering southern Mexico last week were exacerbated by Hurricane Stan, which came ashore along that country's Gulf Coast early Tuesday and moved over the states of Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca before dissipating.
Mexican President Vicente Fox traveled to Chiapas, on his country's border with Guatemala, where officials raised the death toll to 10 late Friday.
"It's hard, it's so hard," Fox said in a live television interview from the city of Tapachula, where the power was still out. "I can understand why the people are crying. Why they yell for help."
Shelters in Tapachula and throughout Chiapas were packed with families who begged officials for food, water and clothing. Many were forced to sleep on the floor of schools and government buildings.
