Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Hurricane Eta leaves deadly trail in Guatemala
Dozens believed buried by landslide from rain
PURULHA, Guatemala — Searchers dug through mud and debris looking for an estimated 100 people believed buried by a massive, rain-fueled landslide, as now-Tropical Storm Eta gained strength Saturday and churned toward Cuba.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Eta was about 230 miles west-southwest of Camaguey, Cuba, on Saturday and was moving northeast at 17 mph with winds of 60 mph. The storm was expected to approach the Cayman Islands, be near Cuba on Saturday night and Sunday, and approach the Florida Keys or south Florida late Sunday.
Tropical storm warnings were issued for central Cuba, southern Florida and the Florida Keys. The hurricane center said flash floods could occur in the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, the Bahamas and southern Florida.
Back in Central America, which Eta reached Tuesday as a Category 4 hurricane before weakening into a tropical depression, authorities from Panama to Mexico were still surveying the damages from flooding and landslides following days of torrential rains. The confirmed death toll was in the dozens and expected to rise.
On Friday, search teams in Guatemala pulled the first bodies from a landslide in San Cristobal Verapaz, but the work was slow and help was trickling in. Teams first had to overcome multiple landslides and deep mud just to reach the site, where officials have estimated some 150 homes were devastated.
In the village of Quejá, where a hillside collapsed onto homes, rescue workers used a helicopter to evacuate survivor Emilio Caal. He suffered a dislocated shoulder when the landslide sent rocks, trees and earth hurtling onto the home where he was about to sit down to lunch with his wife and grandchildren. Caal said that he was blown several yards by the force of the slide, and that none of the others were able to get out.
In neighboring Honduras, 68-yearold María Elena Mejía Guadron died when the brown waters of the Chamelecon River poured into San Pedro Sula’s Planeta neighborhood before dawn Thursday.
Mirian Esperanza Nájera Mejía
had fled her home in the dark with her two children and Mejía, her mother. But while she held tight to her children, the current swept away Mejía.
Nájera continued searching desperately for her mother Friday morning. But Mejía’s body was recovered later.
In southern Mexico, across the border from Guatemala, 20 people died as heavy rains attributed to Eta caused mudslides and swelled streams and rivers, according to Chiapas state civil defense official Elías Morales Rodríguez.
The worst outcome in Mexico occurred in the mountain township of Chenalho, where 10 people were swept away by a rain-swollen stream.
Flooding in the neighboring state of Tabasco was so bad that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador cut short a trip to western Mexico and was flying to Tabasco, his home state, to oversee relief efforts.
But the massive slide in Guatemala’s central mountains threatened to double Central America’s reported death toll in one remote community.
Late Friday, army spokesman Rubén Tellez said soldiers and community members had recovered the first three bodies. Hundreds of tons of mud, rock and debris entombed others.
Rescue teams struggled for hours Friday to reach the site from two different approaches. Smaller landslides blocked highways and decimated the dirt road leading to the community of Quejá at the base of the slide.
Hurricane Eta’s arrival in northeastern Nicaragua followed days of drenching rain as it crawled toward shore. Its slow, meandering path north through Honduras pushed rivers over their banks and pouring into neighborhoods, where families were forced onto rooftops to wait for rescue.
The Honduran government estimates that more than 1.6 million have been affected. It said rescues were happening Friday in San Pedro Sula and La Lima, but the need was great and resources limited.
The U.S. State Department said in a statement Friday that four U.S. helicopters from the Soto Cano Air Base, near Tegucigalpa, had flown to San Pedro Sula to participate in rescue operations. U.S. helicopters were also assisting in Panama, where authorities confirmed five deaths in the western province of Chiriqui, which borders Costa Rica.