19 die as Julia brings Central America rain
GUATEMALA CITY – Now a tropical depression, former Hurricane Julia drenched Guatemala and El Salvador with torrential rains Monday after it reemerged in the Pacific following a pounding of Nicaragua.
At least 19 people were reported dead as a direct or indirect result of the storm.
Guatemala’s disaster prevention agency said five people died after a hillside collapsed on their house in Alta Verapaz province, burying them.
Authorities in El Salvador said five Salvadoran army soldiers died after a
wall collapsed at a house where they sought refuge in the town of Comasagua, where hundreds of police and soldiers have been conducting anti-gang raids. Another soldier was injured.
Two other people died in the eastern El Salvador town of Guatajiagua after heavy rains caused a wall of their home to collapse. Another man in El Salvador died when he was swept away by a current, and another died when a tree fell on him.
Rivers overflowed their banks and El Salvador declared a state of emergency and opened 80 storm shelters.
In neighboring Honduras, a 22-yearold woman and a 30-year-old man died after they were swept away by currents, and two people died when their boat swamped or capsized in northern Honduras.
Julia hit Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast early Sunday as a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85
mph and passed over the country’s mountainous terrain, entering the Pacific late in the day as a tropical storm.
By Monday, Julia had moved inland over Guatemala, and its winds were down to 35 mph.
The center said life-threatening flash floods and mudslides were possible across Central America and southern Mexico through Tuesday, with the storm expected to bring as much as 15 inches of rain in isolated areas.
In Guatemala, two people were listed as missing and two were hospitalized, and about 1,300 people had to leave their homes.
Julia was expected to dissipate later Monday.
Colombia’s national disaster agency reported Sunday that Julia blew the roofs off several houses and knocked over trees as it blasted past San Andres Island east of Nicaragua.