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SAN SALVADOR: Floods and landslides killed at least 130 people in El Salvador and sent 10,000 fleeing their homes on Monday after a late-season hurricane devastated swaths of mountainous Central America.
Landslides and overflowing rivers swept away entire homes, while a raging torrent ripped through an large section of one town. Some of the bodies were taken to a chapel, covered in mud-caked sheets.
"All we heard in the morning was the growl of the loud noise," Arnoldo Paz, a resident of Verapaz in the central region of the country, told AFP.
"It was a torrent of water and mud that swept away everything in its path. All I could do was tell my wife to grab the kids and flee."
He said the current swept his home away.
Though Hurricane Ida did not hit El Salvador directly, it brought heavy rain that affected the entire region. Ida, now weakened to a tropical storm, was crossing the Gulf of Mexico on Monday heading toward the United States.
President Mauricio Funes declared a state of emergency late Sunday due to rains and flooding in the densely populated Pacific coast of the country of some seven million people.
"Today is a very sad day for the country and its government, in fact it is one of the most tragic days in memory," Funes said in a televised address to the nation.
Civil Protection Service Director Jorge Melendez said on Monday the death toll had risen to 130 from 124, and that more than 10,000 people were in shelters, with more than 1,700 homes damaged or destroyed and 1,400 in high-risk conditions.
Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez sought to reassure Salvadorans, saying that the country was not facing the tragedy alone and that international help was on the way.
Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said teams would shortly begin the challenging work - in this hilly and mountainous land - of evaluating the flood damage.
Heavy downpours have lashed the country since Thursday, causing mudslides and flooding. Most of the deaths have occurred in the areas of San Salvador, La Libertad, Cuscatlan, La Paz and San Vicente.
President Funes said the state of emergency will allow his government access to special funds necessary to provide assistance to disaster areas. But he stopped short of saying how much money would be spent to help victims and repair the damage.
Melendez warned that there could still be more fatalities.
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, 114 kilometres 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.
The bodies of a dozen victims were taken from the devastation to a local chapel and covered with white sheets, caked with mud, as they awaited identification by relatives.
El Salvador has been on a state of alert since heavy rains associated with Ida struck the region and destroyed some 930 homes in neighbouring Nicaragua, leaving some 13,000 people homeless.
Not even the country's only zoo was spared: a stream running alongside it burst its banks damaging some installations and killing a few animals, National Zoo director Raul Miranda said.
Torrential rains have also hit the neighbouring nations of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.
No victims or major damage have been reported either in Honduras or Mexico, but about 100 homes have been damaged by flooding in Guatemala, prompting the evacuation of at least 200 people there. - AFP/de
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