GUATEMALA CITY/TEGUCIGALPA,Nov 07,2020: The death toll from the calamitous storm Eta in Central America leapt on Friday as the Guatemalan military reached a remote mountain village where torrential rains caused mudslides that killed an estimated 100 people.
Many of the dead were buried in their homes in the remote village of Queja in the central region of Alta Verapaz, where around 150 houses were swallowed by mudslides, Guatemalan army spokesman Ruben Tellez said.
The area around Queja appeared to be the site of a huge landslide on a road pass a decade ago, which killed dozens, Tellez said.
“Now with all this phenomenon it collapsed again,” he added.
Photos of the Queja landslide showed a lengthy strip of brown mud peeled from the lush green hillside. A video shared by the army showed soldiers trying to get to Queja having to haul themselves through a morass of mud with the aid of a guide rope.
Footage from another part of Guatemala showed boats ferrying villagers in flooded regions and rescue workers carrying children on their backs, wading through water up to their hips.
The army said about 100 people are believed to have died in Queja alone, though searches for survivors continue.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei hinted the death toll could jump higher, with the number of dead and missing in Queja estimated at about 150.
One of the fiercest storms to hit Central America in years, Eta on Friday dumped more torrential rain across swathes of Central America and the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned “catastrophic flooding” in the region would continue.
