Mudslides, flooding triggered by Eta

• The death toll from the storm Eta in Central America soared on Friday after the Guatemalan military reached a mountain village where torrential rains had triggered mudslides, killing about 100 people.

Many of the dead were buried in their homes in the remote Queja village in the central region of Alta Verapaz, where about 150 houses had been swallowed by mudslides.

Photos of the Queja landslide showed a lengthy strip of brown mud peeled from the lush green hillside. Footage from another part of Guatemala showed boats ferrying villagers in flooded regions and rescue workers carrying children on their backs, wading through hipdeep water.

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei indicated the death toll could jump, with the number of dead and missing in Queja village estimated to total about 150.

One of the fiercest storms to hit Central America in years, Eta on Friday dumped more torrential rain across large parts of Central America, and the U.S. National Hurricane Center warned catastrophic flooding in the region would continue.

Rescue operations across Honduras and Guatemala have been slowed by destroyed roads and bridges, forcing authorities to call in the military to rescue people.

Eta wrought chaos after plowing into Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday with winds of 241 km/h, before weakening to a tropical depression and unleashing torrents of rain on regions of Honduras and Guatemala.

“This is the worst storm Honduras has seen in decades,” said Mark Connolly, UNICEF representative in Honduras.

Giammattei earlier added that emergency efforts were limited by the country having only one helicopter adequate for rescue operations.

“We have a lot of people trapped (whom) we have not been able to reach,” he said.

A further 10 people were killed and six people were missing in Honduras.

About 4,000 people had been rescued but many remained trapped on their roofs.

Across swaths of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica, high winds and heavy rain damaged hundreds, if not thousands, of homes.

The storm was expected to impact southern Florida and the Bahamas this weekend.

JORGE CABRERA / REUTERS A woman walks among debris on a bridge over the Chamelecon River after the passage of Storm Eta, in Pimienta, Honduras Friday. Mudslides and flooding have killed and stranded hundreds.