Eta wreaks 'shocking' Central America devastation, dozens dead
Hundreds of people were left stranded on roofs in Honduras as frantic rescue efforts played out, which were credited with taking around 500 people to safety.
"We will not leave the area until we rescue the last person," Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez told local television, adding that rescue efforts led by police, soldiers and firefighters will 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 in the day.
One of the fiercest storms to hit Central America in years, Eta struck Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday with winds of 150 miles per hour (241 kph) before weakening to a tropical depression as it moved inland and into neighboring Honduras.
By Thursday, authorities confirmed at least seven deaths in Honduras. Media in Nicaragua also reported two miners had died in a mudslide. Guatemala's disaster relief agency Conred had earlier said about 15 homes were likely covered by mudslides, possibly affecting around 75 people. Giammattei had already declared a state of emergency in nearly half of the country's 22 departments.
In both Guatemala and Panama, several people have been reported missing as water levels continue to rise.
In southern Costa Rica, a landslide 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, authorities said.
There was at least one silver lining in Honduras, where 60 fishermen who
disappeared at sea on Tuesday returned after taking shelter on cays until they were rescued, said community leader Robin Morales.
Calling their survival a "miracle," Morales said a man among them presumed dead from a heart attack also made it back.