San Salvador, El Salvador – Heavy rains pounded Central America for a fourth day Wednesday, pushing rivers over their banks, flooding communities and unleashing at least two deadly mudslides as the region’s death toll rose to nearly 100 people.
Hurricane Stan, which had helped spawn rainstorms in Central America, weakened to a tropical depression over the southern state of Oaxaca on Wednesday, a day after making landfall along Mexico’s gulf coast. But punishing rains continued in parts of Central America and southern Mexico.
In Guatemala, two mudslides in Solola and nearby San Lucas Toleman, both about 60 miles west of Guatemala City, buried several houses. It was not clear how many people were under the debris, said Carlos Santizo, chief of the Solola fire department.
An Associated Press photographer on site said he saw at least 12 bodies recovered.
The additional victims would bring the death toll in Guatemala to at least 31 and the total number of confirmed victims to 99.
Flooding in more than 88 Guatemalan communities forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 residents. Nearly all of the country’s rivers overflowed their banks, while landslides and fallen trees blocked at least 30 roadways.
Most of the victims were killed in landslides, national disaster agency officials said.
Guatemalan President Oscar Berger called on Congress to declare a national state of emergency, allowing the government to force evacuations of dangerous areas, set prices on emergency supplies and provide federal coordination of relief efforts.
“But we’re only going to do all of this if it is absolutely necessary,” Berger said.
In the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador, at least 49 people were killed by four days of mudslides and flooding. More than 16,700 Salvadorans had fled their homes for 167 shelters nationwide.
Among those evacuated were residents of Santa Tecla, outside the capital, where a strong earthquake caused a massive landslide in January 2001.
Officials have worried that the mountain running alongside the neighborhood might collapse again with heavy rains or another quake.
Nine people died in storm-related incidents in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed to be Ecuadoreans killed in a boat wreck.
Five deaths were reported in Mexico, four in Honduras and one in Costa Rica.
