Storm Eta leaves 150 dead or missing in Guatemala
Giammattei said an army unit had arrived in the northern village of Queja to begin rescue efforts.
Members of Red Cross help to evacuate people after the overflow of Bambito river due to the heavy rains caused by Hurricane Eta, now degraded to a tropical storm, in Bambito, Chiriqui Province 450 north of Panama City, on November 05, 2020. – Panama was the latest country to feel Eta’s wrath, as landslides buried two homes in Chiriqui province on the Costa Rican border, killing five people, the National Protection System said. Among the victims were three children. (Photo by Luis Acosta / AFP)
About 150 people have either died or remain unaccounted for in Guatemala due to mudslides caused by powerful storm Eta, which buried an entire village, President Alejandro Giammattei said Friday.
Giammattei said an army unit had arrived in the northern village of Queja to begin rescue efforts.
He said a preliminary report from the unit indicated that “150 homes have been buried with 100 people dead.”
Giammattei added that another mudslide in the northeastern department of Huehuetenango, on the border with Mexico, had left 10 dead.
“We’ve calculated that between deaths and those missing, the unofficial figures show around 150 dead,” said Giammattei.
He said the situation in Queja was “critical” with heavy rain continuing to fall and provoking new mudslides, while roads are still blocked.
He said some 2,500 people in the impoverished Mayan indigenous area had lost their belongings in the deluge of mud.
Giammattei said there were several refuges in the area because some villages are cut off and lacking food and water.
Eta has torn through Central America, leaving death and destruction in its wake since it made landfall in Nicaragua on Tuesday as a category 4 hurricane, although it has since been downgraded.
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