Eta death toll nears 60 in Central America drenching

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras－The rain-heavy remnants of Hurricane Eta flooded homes from Panama to Guatemala on Thursday as the death toll across Central America rose to at least 57, and aid organizations warned the flooding and mudslides were creating a slow-moving humanitarian disaster.

The storm that hit Nicaragua as a mighty Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday had become more of a vast tropical rainstorm, but it was advancing so slowly and dumping so much rain that much of Central America remained on high alert. Forecasters said the now-tropical depression was expected to regather and head toward Cuba and possibly the Gulf of Mexico this coming week.

On Thursday afternoon, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said a water-soaked mountainside in the central part of the country had slid down onto the town of San Cristobal Verapaz, burying homes and leaving at least 25 dead.

Two other mudslides in Huehuetenango had killed at least 12 more, he said. The president initially said more than 50 people had died in slides, but the individual incidents he cited did not reach that total. Later, David de Leon, spokesman for the national disaster agency, said there were reports of 50 people missing in the Verapaz slide, but government rescue teams had not reached the site.

Earlier on Thursday, five others had been killed in smaller slides in Guatemala.

Giammattei said 60 percent of the eastern city of Puerto Barrios was flooded and 48 more hours of rain was expected.

Guatemala's toll was on top of 13 victims in Honduras and two in Nicaragua. Panamanian authorities reported eight missing.

Eta had sustained winds of 55 kilometers per hour and was moving north at 3 km/h on Thursday. It was centered 140 km northwest of La Ceiba, Honduras.

Agencies Via Xinhua