Central America reels from tropical storm Eta, as death toll surpasses 100

By Josue Decavele and Gustavo Palencia

 

Chickens are pictured among debris and mud at the patio of a house damaged after the passage of Storm Eta, in Pimienta, Honduras November 6, 2020. REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera

 

GUATEMALA CITY/TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The death toll from the calamitous storm Eta in Central America soared on Friday after the Guatemalan military reached a remote mountainous village where torrential rains had triggered devastating mudslides, killing about 100 people.

 

Many of the dead were buried in their homes in the remote Queja village in central region of Alta Verapaz, where about 150 houses had been swallowed by mudslides, Guatemalan army spokesman Ruben Tellez told Reuters, citing preliminary figures.

 

The area around Queja village appeared to be the site of a huge landslide on a road pass a decade ago, which left dozens of people dead, Tellez added.

 

"Now with all this (Eta) phenomenon it collapsed again," Tellez said.

 

Photos of the Queja landslide showed a lengthy strip of brown mud peeled from the lush green hillside. Footage from another part of Guatemala showed boats ferrying villagers in flooded regions and rescue workers carrying children on their backs, wading through water up to their hips.

 

Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei indicated the death toll could jump even higher, with the number of dead and missing in Queja village estimated to total about 150.

 

'CATASTROPHIC FLOODING'

 

One of the fiercest storms to hit Central America in years, Eta on Friday dumped more torrential rain across large parts of Central America and the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned "catastrophic flooding" in the region would continue.

 

Rescue operations across Honduras and Guatemala have been slowed by destroyed roads and bridges, forcing authorities to draft in the military and use helicopters and speedboats to rescue people stranded on top of their houses.

 

Eta wrought chaos after plowing into Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday with winds of 150 miles per hour (241 kph), before weakening to a tropical depression and unleashing torrents of rain on regions of Honduras and Guatemala.

 

"This is the worst storm Honduras has seen in decades. The damage will undoubtedly be significant," said Mark Connolly, UNICEF Representative in Honduras, who estimated about 1.5 million children there will be impacted by Eta.

 

Eta's devastation will likely trigger memories of Hurricane Mitch, which killed some 10,000 people in Central America in 1998.

 

Giammattei earlier added that bad weather was hampering emergency efforts, which were further limited by the country having only one helicopter adequate for rescue operations.

 

"We have a lot of people trapped (whom) we have not been able to reach," he said.

 

A further 10 people were killed and six people are missing in Honduras. About 4,000 people had been rescued but many others remained trapped on their roofs, added Max Gonzalez, the minister of the National Risk Management System (SINAGER).

 

"We have been without food for two days... waiting to be evacuated," William Santos, sheltering on top of a banana packing plant with about 300 people in northern Honduras, told Reuters.

 

ETA'S REGIONAL IMPACT

 

Across swathes of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica, high winds and heavy rain have damaged hundreds, if not thousands, of homes, forcing people to take cover in shelters.

 

Two artisanal miners were killed in Nicaragua while in southern Costa Rica, a landslide killed two people in a house, a Costa Rican woman and an American man, officials said.

 

Near the Costa Rican border in Panama's Chiriqui province, five people, including three children, died in flooding, authorities said.

 

On Friday noon, the eye of the storm was off Belize's coast and heading out to the Caribbean Sea, charting a course to Cuba and Florida this weekend, the U.S. National Hurricane Center(NHC) said.

 

But remnants of Eta will continue to batter portions of Central America with "catastrophic, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding", NHC said.

 

Flash flooding was also possible across Jamaica, southeast Mexico, the Cayman Islands and Cuba, NHC added.

 

(Additional reporting by Sofia Menchu and Josue Decavele in GUATEMALA CITY; Anthony Esposito, Diego Ore, Ana Martinez, and Lizbeth Diaz in MEXICO CITY; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Aurora Ellis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-11-07

 

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I hope that the Bay islands, or Roatan was spared the heavy rain.  It was a good holiday stop over for me several years ago. I remember, great snorkeling and nice beaches and good food and cool drinks.

Geezer