Deadly storm kills 124 in El Salvador, heads for US

Source: MIAMI (AFP)

45 mins ago
MIAMI (AFP) – A late-season hurricane took aim at the United States and oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday after helping cause flooding and landslides that killed 124 people in El Salvador.

Hurricane Ida, which was downgraded to a category one storm early Monday, was crossing the Gulf of Mexico after brushing past Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Local officials said it had caused no casualties or damage to infrastructure in the popular tourist resort city of Cancun.

A hurricane warning had been issued for the US Gulf coast from Pascagoula, Mississippi, to Indian Pass, Florida.

Forecasters at the Miami-based US National Hurricane Center said the storm's maximum winds had decreased early Monday to 90 miles (150 kilometers) an hour, down from 105 miles (165 kilometers) per hour just a few hours before.

The tail-end of Ida coupled with a low pressure system in the Pacific caused heavy flooding in El Salvador that left 124 people dead, civil defense officials said. President Mauricio Funes declared a state of emergency.

Civil Defense chief Jorge Melendez added that "there could be more fatalities" in the eastern regions of Verapaz and Tepetitan.

In Tepetitan, landslides and overflowing rivers carried away some 30 houses, authorities said. Some residents had agreed to evacuate the area, but a number "refused to leave their homes," according to mayor Ana Jovel.

In Verapaz, 71 miles (114 km) southeast of the capital San Salvador, officials reported a raging torrent of mud, rocks and tree trunks ripping through a whole section of the town, burying houses and cars.

A dozen bodies of victims were hauled from the devastation to a local chapel and covered with white sheets, caked with mud, as they awaited identification by relatives.

El Salvador had been on a state of alert since Thursday as heavy rains associated with Ida began to affect the region, destroying an estimated 930 homes and leaving some 13,000 people homeless in Nicaragua.

On Saturday, Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega said his government hoped to make available up to 4.4 million dollars in aid for those affected by the storm.

At 0900 GMT, Ida was about 285 miles (460 km) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, moving northwest at nearly 16 miles (26 kilometers) per hour, according to the NHC.

The center said the storm was expected to gradually weaken, but will likely remain a hurricane as it approached the US coast.



Read ::: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091109/ts_afp/uslatamweatherstorm

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091109/ts_afp/uslatamweatherstorm

Can't imagine how you could not die of fright seeing the mountains around you crashing down upon houses which are being washed by rising water.

No one should have to live with this. Terrifying.

not just politics.

Rescuers dig for survivors in buried Salvador town
AP
Monday 9th November, 2009 Posted: 15:57 CIT (20:57 GMT)

VERAPAZ, El Salvador (AP) – Soldiers and residents dug through rock and debris looking for dozens of people missing when a mudslide covered a town in El Salvador, part of a wave of flooding and landslides that has killed at least 124 people in this Central American country.

Days of heavy rains, indirectly linked to Hurricane Ida’s passage through the region, caused mud and boulders to sweep down the side of the Chichontepec volcano before dawn Sunday, burying homes and cars in the town of Verapaz, about 30 miles outside the capital, San Salvador.

Homes, streets and cars were swallowed by the mud in the town of about 3,000 inhabitants.

"It was terrible. The rocks came down on top of the houses and split them in two, and split the pavement," said Manuel Melendez, 61, who whose home was destroyed. "I heard people screaming all around."

Amid a persistent drizzle, rescuers dug frantically for survivors late Sunday with shovels and even their bare hands. But the search was made difficult by collapsed walls, boulders and downed power lines that blocked heavy machinery.

President Mauricio Funes declared a national emergency and called the damages incalculable.

More:
http://www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=10386970

Floods kill 144 in El Salvador
Published: 10/11/2009 at 11:52 PM

Rescue workers in El Salvador on Tuesday tried to reach dozens of towns cut off by torrents of mud and debris unleashed by devastating late-season storms that killed at least 144 people.

The total number of dead rose to 144, civil protection authorities said after landslides and overflowing rivers swept away homes, while a raging torrent ripped through part of the town of Verapaz, where bodies _ covered in mud-caked sheets _ were stored in a local chapel, waiting to be identified.

Rescue efforts focused on the eastern San Vicente department, where 72 people were still missing after three days of driving rain, 60 of them in Verapaz alone, officials said late Monday.

"The problem here in finding bodies is removing all these rocks and trees,'' Carlos Arce, 27, told AFP in what remained of his town of 6,800 after the storm.

"The floods took away people, houses and destroyed the crops,'' said Javier Martinez, a local farmer.
The number of people seeking emergency shelter dropped slightly to 12,930, a civil protection official said, while 1,800 homes were damaged or destroyed and 18 bridges and many roads were washed away by the floods.

More:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/159691/floods-kill-144-in-el-salvador