More devastating weather, this time in central America.
These rains have caused massive flooding and destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure that it has rebuilt over the last several months following Tropical Storm Agatha.
More birth pains….
_________________________________________________________________
Heavy rains devastate Guatemala
A state of emergency has been declared in Guatemala, where days of heavy rain have caused widespread flooding and landslides.
At least 20 people have been killed, including at least 10 who died when a bus was engulfed by a mudslide.
President Alvaro Colom said the rains had undone all the reconstruction work completed since Tropical Storm Agatha, which killed 165 people in May.
He has asked congress to approve emergency funds for rebuilding.
Days of heavy rains have saturated Guatemala’s mountainous terrain, causing hillsides to collapse suddenly and without warning.
Buried alive
The worst landslide buried a packed bus as it travelled on the main Inter-American highway, west of the capital Guatemala City.
At least 10 people were killed, and emergency workers had to dig through thick mud to rescue 20 others from the wreckage.
In the western region of Quetzaltenango, a family of four died when their home was buried by a mudslide.
At least four other deaths have been reported around the country. About 4,000 people have been evacuated from their houses, reports said.
More than 100km (65 miles) of the Inter-American highway has been closed to all traffic, and many other roads have been blocked.
A bridge that was replaced after being destroyed by Tropical Storm Agatha has again been smashed by floods, cutting the main route to the south-west of the country.
President Colom said the rains had “destroyed all the work that has been done in the last few weeks” and caused damage estimated at up to half a billion dollars (£330m).
_________________________________________________________________
Click on the article title for a link to full original referenced article.
myBlessedHope 