Published Date:
09 November 2009
MUD and boulders loosened by days of heavy rain swept down a volcano and buried a small town, swallowing up homes as flooding and landslides across El Salvador killed at least 124 people.
Hundreds of soldiers, police and local residents dug through rock and debris in Verapaz looking for another 60 people missing from the mudslide, which struck before dawn yesterday while residents were still in their beds.
One, Matias Mendoza, 26, said: "It was two in the morning when the rain started coming down harder, and the earth started shaking. Next thing I knew I was lying among parts of the walls of my house.
"A few minutes later, I found my wife and my son in the middle of the rubble, and, thank God, we're alive."
Almost 7,000 people saw their homes damaged by landslides or cut off by floodwaters following three days of downpours from a weather system related to Hurricane Ida, which brushed Mexico's Cancun resort yesterday before steaming into the Gulf of Mexico.
El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes declared a national emergency.
"The images we have seen today are of a devastated country," he said.
He called the damages caused incalculable.
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Last Updated:
09 November 2009 9:44 AM
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Source:
Edinburgh Evening News
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Location:
Edinburgh
