<9,000 people woke up in shelters in Veracruz, Mexico>
Thursday, October 6, 2005 Posted: 0152 GMT (0952 HKT)
**SAN SALVADOR (AP) -- Heavy rains Wednesday pounded Central America for
a fourth day, pushing rivers over their banks and unleashing a string of
deadly mudslides as the region's death toll increased to more than 135
people.**
Hurricane Stan weakened to a depression and dissipated after making landfall
along Mexico's Gulf Coast early Tuesday, but it helped spawn rain storms that
unleashed punishing downpours further south.
In Guatemala, a mudslide near the internationally popular tourist destination
of Lake Atitlan, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the capital, Guatemala
City, buried several houses. At least a dozen people were confirmed dead there,
said Mario Cruz, a spokesman for volunteer firefighters.
The additional victims brought the death toll in that country alone to at least
50, and the total number of confirmed victims to about 125 throughout the region.
"We have 50 dead, most of them buried by mudslides and landslides, but I think
there are going to be a lot more," said Benedicto Giron, spokesman for Guatemala's
National Disaster Prevention Commission.
Flooding in more than 88 Guatemalan communities forced the evacuation of more than
6,000 residents. Nearly all of the country's rivers overflowed their banks, while
landslides and fallen trees blocked at least 30 roadways. Most of the victims were
killed in landslides, national disaster agency officials said.
Guatemalan President Oscar Berger called on Congress to declare a national state
of emergency, allowing the government to force evacuations of dangerous areas,
set prices on emergency supplies and provide federal coordination of relief efforts.
"But we're only going to do all of this if it is absolutely necessary," Berger said.
~~Volcano is a concern~~
In El Salvador, President Tony Saca said late Wednesday night that 62 people had
been killed, mostly by landslides following days of nonstop rain throughout the
country. Nearly 40,650 others fled their homes for 361 shelters set up nationwide.
Among those evacuated were residents of Santa Tecla, outside the capital, San Salvador,
where a strong earthquake caused a massive landslide in January 2001.
Officials have worried the mountain running alongside the neighborhood might collapse
again with heavy rains or another quake.
The recently reactivated Ilamatepec Volcano posed an additional threat to battered
Salvadorans, with civil defense authorities on Wednesday widening the safety perimeter
around the volcano from four kilometers to five kilometers (about three miles) amid
indications of an imminent eruption.
Nine people died in storm-related storms in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed
to be Ecuadoreans killed in a boat wreck. Four deaths were reported in Honduras and
one in Costa Rica.
In the Chiapas city of Tapachula, near Mexico's border with Guatemala, three people
were killed when they were dragged away by the raging current of a river that
overflowed its banks and roared through the city, also carrying homes of wood
and metal with it, civil protection officials said Wednesday. Three other Chiapas
residents were confirmed dead, as flooding forced hundreds of evacuations.
President Vicente Fox paid a visit to the area, where heavy rains continued to fall.
Later, he said from Mexico City, "we ask families there in Chiapas to first dedicate
all of their attention to protecting their lives, their health and their family members."
Tapachula was largely cut off from surrounding areas as major highways, roads and
bridges were left under water. Authorities said supplies would have to be delivered
by air and boat to communities cut off from roads by flooding, landslides and
fallen trees.
Other Mexican victims included a married couple who were killed Wednesday in a
landslide in the southern state of Oaxaca, civil protection officials said.
Emergency authorities in the state of Veracruz, which took a direct hit from
Hurricane Stan, said two men drowned in floodwaters while trying to cross
streams, and another died in the port city of Veracruz, apparently while
trying to help others. Also, seven people were injured in the state.
At least 9,000 people woke up in shelters in Veracruz on Wednesday morning
and about 38,000 people had been evacuated from their homes throughout
the state, officials said.
Most Mexican Gulf Coast ports affected by the hurricane reopened to cargo
ships on Wednesday, although restrictions remained on large-draft boats
at Tabasco, in the north of Veracruz, and Frontera, in the southern
state of Tabasco.
The nationally owned oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said
that the hurricane disrupted an unspecified amount of oil production
Tuesday as it swept through the Gulf of Mexico, but that it hopes to
have those operations running again Wednesday.
The company's three Gulf coast crude-oil loading ports -- Coatzacoalcos,
Dos Bocas and Cayo Arcas -- reopened Wednesday after being shutdown for
one day. Pemex is the world's third-largest oil producer, and most of its
exports are sent to the United States.
(Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Thursday, October 6, 2005 Posted: 0152 GMT (0952 HKT)
**SAN SALVADOR (AP) -- Heavy rains Wednesday pounded Central America for
a fourth day, pushing rivers over their banks and unleashing a string of
deadly mudslides as the region's death toll increased to more than 135
people.**
Hurricane Stan weakened to a depression and dissipated after making landfall
along Mexico's Gulf Coast early Tuesday, but it helped spawn rain storms that
unleashed punishing downpours further south.
In Guatemala, a mudslide near the internationally popular tourist destination
of Lake Atitlan, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the capital, Guatemala
City, buried several houses. At least a dozen people were confirmed dead there,
said Mario Cruz, a spokesman for volunteer firefighters.
The additional victims brought the death toll in that country alone to at least
50, and the total number of confirmed victims to about 125 throughout the region.
"We have 50 dead, most of them buried by mudslides and landslides, but I think
there are going to be a lot more," said Benedicto Giron, spokesman for Guatemala's
National Disaster Prevention Commission.
Flooding in more than 88 Guatemalan communities forced the evacuation of more than
6,000 residents. Nearly all of the country's rivers overflowed their banks, while
landslides and fallen trees blocked at least 30 roadways. Most of the victims were
killed in landslides, national disaster agency officials said.
Guatemalan President Oscar Berger called on Congress to declare a national state
of emergency, allowing the government to force evacuations of dangerous areas,
set prices on emergency supplies and provide federal coordination of relief efforts.
"But we're only going to do all of this if it is absolutely necessary," Berger said.
~~Volcano is a concern~~
In El Salvador, President Tony Saca said late Wednesday night that 62 people had
been killed, mostly by landslides following days of nonstop rain throughout the
country. Nearly 40,650 others fled their homes for 361 shelters set up nationwide.
Among those evacuated were residents of Santa Tecla, outside the capital, San Salvador,
where a strong earthquake caused a massive landslide in January 2001.
Officials have worried the mountain running alongside the neighborhood might collapse
again with heavy rains or another quake.
The recently reactivated Ilamatepec Volcano posed an additional threat to battered
Salvadorans, with civil defense authorities on Wednesday widening the safety perimeter
around the volcano from four kilometers to five kilometers (about three miles) amid
indications of an imminent eruption.
Nine people died in storm-related storms in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed
to be Ecuadoreans killed in a boat wreck. Four deaths were reported in Honduras and
one in Costa Rica.
In the Chiapas city of Tapachula, near Mexico's border with Guatemala, three people
were killed when they were dragged away by the raging current of a river that
overflowed its banks and roared through the city, also carrying homes of wood
and metal with it, civil protection officials said Wednesday. Three other Chiapas
residents were confirmed dead, as flooding forced hundreds of evacuations.
President Vicente Fox paid a visit to the area, where heavy rains continued to fall.
Later, he said from Mexico City, "we ask families there in Chiapas to first dedicate
all of their attention to protecting their lives, their health and their family members."
Tapachula was largely cut off from surrounding areas as major highways, roads and
bridges were left under water. Authorities said supplies would have to be delivered
by air and boat to communities cut off from roads by flooding, landslides and
fallen trees.
Other Mexican victims included a married couple who were killed Wednesday in a
landslide in the southern state of Oaxaca, civil protection officials said.
Emergency authorities in the state of Veracruz, which took a direct hit from
Hurricane Stan, said two men drowned in floodwaters while trying to cross
streams, and another died in the port city of Veracruz, apparently while
trying to help others. Also, seven people were injured in the state.
At least 9,000 people woke up in shelters in Veracruz on Wednesday morning
and about 38,000 people had been evacuated from their homes throughout
the state, officials said.
Most Mexican Gulf Coast ports affected by the hurricane reopened to cargo
ships on Wednesday, although restrictions remained on large-draft boats
at Tabasco, in the north of Veracruz, and Frontera, in the southern
state of Tabasco.
The nationally owned oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, said
that the hurricane disrupted an unspecified amount of oil production
Tuesday as it swept through the Gulf of Mexico, but that it hopes to
have those operations running again Wednesday.
The company's three Gulf coast crude-oil loading ports -- Coatzacoalcos,
Dos Bocas and Cayo Arcas -- reopened Wednesday after being shutdown for
one day. Pemex is the world's third-largest oil producer, and most of its
exports are sent to the United States.
(Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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