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GUARDIAN Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:19:53 GMT
• At least 60 missing after floods and mud slides
• Louisiana emergency as hurricane Ida threatens
Nearly 100 people have been killed by floods and mud slides in El Salvador after a weekend of heavy rains driven by hurricane Ida. The country's interior minister, Humberto Centeno, said 91 people had died and at least 60 were missing. About 7,000 more are in shelters.
"Up until noon there have been, sadly, 91 deaths in all five [affected] provinces. There are 60 people missing in just the province of San Vicente," Centeno told reporters.
He said rescue workers were still struggling to reach some of the worst affected areas because of damage to roads. "We have been through disaster zones, including a fly-over of Verapaz [in San Vicente]," he said. "It is a real tragedy there."
The capital, San Salvador, was the hardest hit region, with 61 people reported dead, including a family of two adults and two children who were killed when a mud slide buried their home , a Red Cross spokesman, Carlos López Mendoza, said. Central San Vicente province was also badly affected, with 23 killed.
Most of the victims were buried by mudslides or swept away by raging rivers, the deputy interior minister, Ernesto Zelayandia, said.
A Red Cross spokesman said a river in Verapaz overflowed its banks and swamped 300 homes. The rains unleashed massive rock slides from the Chichontepec volcano that buried several houses, the mayor, Antonio Cerritos, told Radio Nacional.
Heavy rains began falling on El Salvador on Saturday night as the storm moved through the area, causing rivers to burst their banks and mud slides in the hilly interior to bury homes and roads.
Ida strengthened to a category two storm yesterday as it made its way across the Gulf of Mexico, where it is expected to pick up steam moving over open waters. In the US, Louisiana's governor, Bobby Jindal, declared a state of emergency last night as the US Gulf coast braced for Ida's arrival by tomorrow. A hurricane alert was in effect from south-eastern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, although New Orleans which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, was not included in the watch area.
Jindal's emergency declaration is a precaution that frees up state resources for any emergency situations. Coastal stretches of south-east Louisiana, particularly areas outside levee protection, are the main concern. Forecasts indicate that those areas could see winds, rains and high tides that could cause localised flooding.
Officials in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama were also keeping a close eye on the storm's track, though no emergency declarations or other measures had yet been issued.
Forecasters at the US national hurricane centre in Miami said Ida's winds were near 100mph and could get stronger overnight.
Dave Roberts, a navy hurricane specialist, said Ida's presence in the western Caribbean may have played a role in drawing a Pacific low-pressure system toward El Salvador, causing the rains.
Earlier yesterday, Ida's wind and rain whipped palm trees in the Mexican resort of Cancún. Fishermen tied their boats down, though tourists seemed to regard Ida as only a minor setback. "I figure probably in a couple hours we'll be stuck inside," said Julie Randolph, 40, a social worker from Ormond Beach, Florida, who braved the rain to jog along the near-empty beach.
As winds picked up and intermittent rains intensified, restaurants and nightclubs near the waterfront began covering their windows with plywood.
Ida is expected to interact with a weakening cold front over open seas and will most likely become a tropical storm, or perhaps a low-level hurricane, by the time it gets to the Gulf Coast.
Parts of the Yucatan peninsula remained under a hurricane warning, and a tropical storm warning was in place for the western tip of Cuba, with heavy rains expected.
El Salvador (News)
Natural disasters and extreme weather
David Batty
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 |.....
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| Full List of Central America articles |
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