Floods paralyze Central America, kill 164

[GutterRat]

Story

GUATEMALA CITY, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Raging flood waters cut off large areas of Central America and southern Mexico on Thursday, hurting efforts to rescue victims of mudslides that have killed at least 164 people in the wake Hurricane Stan.

Emergency teams battled to reach remote villages where hillsides collapsed under torrential rains, and thousands of evacuees from urban shantytowns hunkered down in emergency shelters as rain pounded the region.

"We have lots of landslides, and some bridges have collapsed," said Benedicto Giron of the civil-protection agency in Guatemala, where at least 20 communities were completely isolated with rescuers were unable to reach them.

"The situation is very delicate. There are many houses damaged and roads covered with landslides," Guatemalan President Oscar Berger said.

 

[ScottishJohn]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4317704.stm

Death toll now at 230. When I was in Guatemala 4 years ago there were still many communities struggling to recover from the effects of Hurricane Mitch, and the earthquake which centred on El Salvador. The people in Guatemala are fantastic so resilliant, and have suffered so much.