GUATEMALA: Landslides Bury Hundreds
EMERGENCY RELIEF FUNDS NEEDED
Since the death and destruction caused by June's "Tropical Storm Agatha", that killed hundreds, the rains, flooding and mudslides are not letting up in Guatemala.
BELOW: News reports on the September flooding and mudslides that have left hundreds dead or missing, and tens of thousands more displaced. The heavy rains continue.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION: Grahame Russell, co-director (860-352-2448, info@rightsaction.org ) & Annie Bird, co-director (202-680-3002, annie@rightsaction.org )
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Monday, September 6, 2010
GUATEMALA LANDSLIDES BURY HUNDREDS: Scores feared dead in fresh landslide overnight, as heavy rains force authorities to suspend rescue operations
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/09/20109504110783907.html
An overnight landslide caused by flooding may have buried around 100 people trying to rescue victims of a previous landslide along the Inter-American Highway in the Guatemalan highlands.
Al Jazeera's Martin Asturias, reporting from the scene of the incident near the town of Santa Maria Ixtaguacan, said that 23 bodies have been pulled from the mud so far. Those buried Sunday (September 5) were working to rescue victims of a previous landslide, which swept over a bus on Saturday and killed at least 12 people.
The government estimates that 38 people have died in the past two days of flood-triggered landslides, but the 12 people killed Saturday combined with the 23 bodies recovered from the second landslide amounts to a death toll of 45 - a number that is likely to rise as more bodies are found.
Heavy rains on Sunday afternoon forced rescue work to be suspended until Monday, said David de Leon, a spokesman for the national disaster response effort.
'NATIONAL TRAGEDY'
Unrelenting rains and severe weather have lashed Guatemala for weeks, in what the country's president has called a "national tragedy". Alvaro Colom, the Guatemalan president, declared a state of emergency. The president also told citizens to stay off the nation's highways to avoid more landslides.
The Inter-American Highway has been cut by more than 30 landslides in a 50-kilometre span. Guatemala's national radio station reported that other landslides created a traffic jams up to 75km long. The highway is now "practically closed," Guatemala's government said Sunday.
A week of heavy rain have caused flooding that have affected some 40,000 people in the country. At least four other people died in a house in western Quetzaltenango on Saturday after it collapsed due to a landslide - adding to weather-related deaths from Friday. Colom warned that 24,000 more people are at risk as the government runs out of funds to deal with the crisis.
"Top priority at present is dealing with this emergency. There are no funds left to deal with earlier disasters like the one caused by [tropical storm] Agatha," in late May, Colom said on Saturday after touring some of the affected areas.
HIGH COST
He said weeks of heavy rains - including the latest torrent brought on by Hurricane Frank - had caused between $350-500 million in destruction across the country. Meteorologists have forecast another 24-36 hours of heavy rain throughout much of Guatemala. [...]
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6 September 2010 (BBC)
HOPES FADE FOR GUATEMALA LANDSLIDE VICTIMS: IT IS FEARED MANY MORE PEOPLE MAY HAVE DIED IN THE DISASTER
Guatemalan officials say they have given up hope for dozens of people buried when a landslide engulfed a highway north-west of the capital. The mud crashed onto the road as a crowd tried to dig out vehicles buried by a previous landslide.
President Alvaro Colom has called the landslides a "national tragedy". So far 38 people are known to have died but with scores of landslips across the country, there are fears the final number of dead will be much higher.
Emergency workers have recovered 20 bodies from the massive landslide that engulfed people as they tried to dig out people caught in an earlier landslide on the Inter-American Highway north-west of Guatemala City.
"The mountain was making a noise like an earthquake, but people wouldn't leave," a police officer, Pascual Tuy, told the Associated Press, saying he tried to shout a warning as the hillside began crumbling.
Civil defence director Sergio Cabanas told the BBC that rescue efforts were suspended on Sunday amid fears of further mudslides triggered by weeks of heavy rain. "We have given up for dead all those trapped in the mud," he said, adding that the authorities were now focusing on bringing in heavy equipment to clear the roads.
LARGE AREAS HAVE BEEN FLOODED AND BRIDGES SWEPT AWAY
Weeks of heavy rain have saturated Guatemala's mountainous terrain, causing hillsides to collapse suddenly. Parts of the country have seen the heaviest rainfall for half a century, according to Guatemala's national meteorological institute. The Central American nation was still trying to recover from the effects of a tropical storm that left 165 people dead in May.
President Colom, who has declared a state of emergency, said the latest rains had undone all the reconstruction work done since then. "It's painful that poor people always pay the price of natural disasters," he said.
More than 100km (65 miles) of the Inter-American Highway has been closed to traffic. Several hundred bridges across the country, including the main bridge between Guatemala and Honduras, have been damaged.
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DOZENS DEAD, SCORES MISSING IN MUDSLIDES IN GUATEMALA
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/deadly-mudslides-in-guatemala/19621759
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NAHUALA, Guatemala (Sept. 5) - Torrential rains from a tropical depression caused landslides that have killed at least 38 people in Guatemala - some of them rescuers trying to save people already buried under a wall of mud. In the village of Nahuala, about 200 rescue workers suspended the search for bodies Sunday afternoon after heavy rain fell in the area, Civil Protection spokesman David de Leon said. Two slides in the same spot in the town of Nahuala killed at least 20 along a highway leading northwest of the capital toward Mexico. Another slide closer to Guatemala City killed at least 12. "We will return when the rain ceases," De Leon said. "It is difficult and dangerous to continue with the search."
Suagustino Pascual Tuy, a Nahuala police officer, said he and several others rushed to the highway with picks and shovels after hearing radio reports of the fallen earth, which had buried two pickup trucks and a bus at kilometer 171 of the Inter-American highway. Pascual Tuy said the crowds were able to rescue several people alive including his nephew, who was driving one of the pickups.
"He is in critical condition, but thank God we were able to get him out alive," he said.
Pascual Tuy said people were still digging through the rubble when the mountain above them began crackling. He shouted a warning, but moments later the second slide buried a number of rescuers. Pascual Tuy ran for his life and the slide only caught his legs. "The mountain was making noise like an earthquake, but people wouldn't leave," he said. "They were being stubborn and didn't get out."
Regional fire department Maj. Otto Mazariegos said at least 50 people are believed to be buried. "Under the earth there is a bus that carried we don't know how many people, and there are those who tried to help the victims of the first slide," Mazariegos said.
Rescue crews have recovered 20 bodies from that site, said fire department spokesman Jose Rodriguez. A few hours earlier, a landslide at kilometer 81 of the same highway partially buried a bus, killing 12 people.
Communications Minister Guillermo Castillo said there have been 15 landslides in different spots along the Inter-American highway in the last 48 hours. Pascual Tuy said there have been several landslides along the highway in the last year, and authorities knew of the danger. "Last year there was a landslide there, 15 days ago there was a landslide," he said. "But now a big one came."
President Alvaro Colom visited the area Sunday and said the following day would be declared a national day of mourning. Speaking Saturday, even before news of the second slide, Colom said, "It is a tragic day. Today alone 18 people have died, 12 buried by a hill when they traveled in a bus." The president told officials to close the highway. "There are several hillsides that are loose and could fall. So we ask the population to not go out, to avoid moving along the highways," he said.
Fire Department spokesman Mario Cruz said it could take three days to recover all the bodies because of the weather. Heavy rains from Tropical Depression 11-E have pelted Guatemala for days, unleashing mudslides in several areas, cutting highways and prompting officials to evacuate thousands of people.
[Associated Press writer Olga Rodriguez contributed to this report from Mexico City.]
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TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS: make check payable to "Rights Action" and mail to:
UNITED STATES: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
CANADA: 552 - 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8
CREDIT-CARD DONATIONS: http://rightsaction.org/contributions.htm
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RIGHTS ACTION's DISASTER RELIEF WORK:
Rights Action is a not-for-profit organization, with tax charitable status in Canada and the USA, that since 1995 has been funding and working to eliminate poverty and the underlying causes of poverty. Rights Action funds and works with community-based development, environmental, disaster relief and human rights projects and organizations in Guatemala and Honduras, as well as in Chiapas [Mexico], El Salvador and Haiti. Rights Action educates about and is involved in other work aimed at critically understanding unjust north-south relations and global development, environmental and human rights issues and the challenges of poverty eradication.
DISASTER RELIEF FUNDS will be sent directly to long-term Rights Action partner groups in Guatemala that (a) are providing emergency assistance (food, water, medical attention, shelter) to victims of the floods and mudslides, and that (b) have a long-term vision of community controlled "development" that end the underlying causes of exploitation, poverty and vulnerability.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION: Grahame Russell, co-director (860-352-2448, info@rightsaction.org ) & Annie Bird, co-director (202-680-3002, annie@rightsaction.org ) |
