Guatemala searches for missing after landslide
Tropical Storm Eta spins toward Cuba and Florida
PURULHA, Guatemala – Searchers in Guatemala dug through mud and debris looking for an estimated 100 people believed buried by a massive, rain-fueled landslide, as Tropical Storm Eta continued to gain strength Saturday and churned toward Cuba.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Eta was about 230 miles westsouthwest of Camaguey, Cuba, on Saturday and 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 as a Category 4 hurricane Tuesday 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. 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 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.
“When the flooding started, the whole family was leaving the house,” said family friend Nery Solis. “Mirian had her two children, and suddenly the current grabbed them, and she wasn’t able to get her mom.”
The family transported Mejía’s body to the western city of Copan on Friday.
Her burial was scheduled for Saturday.
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 incident in Mexico occurred in the mountain township of Chenalho, where 10 people were swept away by a stream; their bodies were later found downstream. Mexico’s National Meteorological Service said Eta’s “broad circulation is causing intense to torrential rains on the Yucatan peninsula and in southeastern Mexico.”
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.