Dozens dead as Eta strikes Central America
GUATEMALA CITY: The remnants of Hurricane Eta unleashed torrential rains and catastrophic flooding on Central America, fatalities sharply rising yesterday mostly because of landslips as streets turned into rivers and bridges came tumbling down.
More than 70 people were reported killed across the region of mostly poor countries wedged between Mexico and Colombia, and at least hundreds were stranded on rooftops or cut off by floods.
In Guatemala, the death toll shot up past 50 yesterday, according to President Alejandro Giammattei, who said mudslides around a couple small towns swallowed about a couple of dozen homes.
‘‘Right now, we’re trying to get there on foot because there’s no other way,’’ Giammattei said, referring to floodedout roads that complicated rescue efforts.
One of the fiercest storms to hit Central America in years, Eta struck Nicaragua as a category 4 hurricane on Wednesday with winds of 240kmh before weakening to a tropical depression as it moved inland and into neighbouring Honduras.
Families waded through flooded streets of the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, while cars sat almost submerged in parts of the central Guatemalan city of San Pedro Carcha, television footage and images posted on social media showed.
Overall, eight fatalities were confirmed in Honduras, as more than 5000 people were holed up in shelters, while 63 communities were cut off from communications, according to the Government. Officials said 20 bridges there had been destroyed.
Video posted on social media showed one of the bridges, spanning the Ulua River just east of San Pedro Sula, disappearing into the waterway after a raging torrent pulled it down.
The Honduran Government said about 500 people were rescued from their roofs in Honduras yesterday as water levels continued to rise, but many others were likely still stranded.
‘‘We will not leave the area until we rescue the last person,’’ Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez told media, adding that rescue efforts led by police, soldiers and firefighters would continue overnight.
Damage and destruction had spread across most of Honduras and speedboats and helicopters would be sent to take people to safety in inaccessible areas, Hernandez said earlier yesterday.
Media in Nicaragua also reported two miners had been killed in a landslip.
Guatemala’s Giammattei had already declared a state of emergency in nearly half of the country’s 22 regions.
In southern Costa Rica, a landslip killed two people in a house, a Costa Rican woman and an American man, officials said. Meanwhile, five people, including three children, died in flooding in Panama’s Chiriqui province, near the Costa Rica border.
In Honduras, 60 fishermen who disappeared at sea on Wednesday returned after being rescued from islets. — Reuters