Tropical storm kills 99 as it rages across Central America

Villagers watch the overflowing Choluteca River after heavy rains in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The storm has so far claimed the lives of 83 people in Central America

The storm swept in from the Pacific on Saturday and struck near Guatamala's border with Mexico, bringing with it torrential rains and winds of up to 45mph. Vast stretches of farm land in this area of south-western Guatemala lie under water

With flood waters up to his waist, a man walks in the middle of a street in Honduras where the storm killed one man. Stretching from southern Mexico to Nicaragua, the storm-ravaged area has killed 83 people so far

Two sisters make their way through flood waters in the Guatemalan town of Amatitlan close to Lake Amatitlan. Torrential rains from Agatha - the first named storm of the Pacific hurricane season - pounded an area stretching from southern Mexico nearly to Nicaragua killing 99 people

A tropical storm raging across Central America has triggered landslides and flooding killing at least 99 people.

Torrential rains from Agatha - the first named storm of the Pacific hurricane season - pounded an area stretching from southern Mexico nearly to Nicaragua.

The worst hit country was Guatemala where 82 died with nine deaths reported in El Salvador and one in Honduras.
Agatha swept in from the Pacific on Saturday and struck near Guatamala's border with Mexico, bringing with it torrential rains and winds of up to 45mph.



A sinkhole created by storm Agatha covers a street intersection in the centre of Guatemala City in Guatemala. Torrential rains brought by the first tropical storm of the year pounded Central America and southern Mexico, triggering deadly landslides

A woman sifts through her belongings in Amatitilan, Guatemala

Residents prepare to take down their tin roof and wood home as the Choluteca river overflowed its banks due to heavy rains in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Rocks and mud loosened by torrential rains cover a highway in Guatemala. The storm came in the from Pacific on Saturday hitting the country's border with Mexico

A man helps a boy to cross a swollen river in El Salvador after storms damaged the bridge crossing it

By Sunday it was beginning to break up over the mountains of western Guatemala but the president of El Salvador Mauricio Funes said the danger had not yet passed.

'Although the storm appears to be diminishing in intensity, the situation across the country remains critical,' he said.

In Honduras, one death was linked to the weather, and a fishing boat was missing off the Pacific coast with eight aboard.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that remnants of the storm were expected to deliver 10in to 20in (25cm to 50cm) of rain over south-eastern Mexico, Guatemala and parts of El Salvador.
By yesterday afternoon, 75,000 people in Guatemala had been evacuated, many to shelters. At least 3,500 homes sustained major damage.

Thirteen died in one landslide that tore through the community of San Antonio Palopo on the steep banks of Lake Atitlan, a popular tourist attraction 40 miles east of Guatemala City.

The country's President Alvaro Colom said 4.3in (10.8cm) of rain had fallen in Guatemala City's valley in one 12-hour period.

The rains unleashed chaos in the department of Quetzaltenango, 125 miles west of Guatemala City, where a boulder loosened by rains crushed a house, killing four people including two children.
Four children were killed when rain-soaked earth gave way in the town of Santa Catarina Pinula, about six miles outside the capital.

Cesar George of Guatemala's meteorological institute said the coastal community of Champerico had received 11.8in (30cm) of rain in 30 hours.

Rainfall from the Guatemalan interior also flooded rivers coursing away from the storm toward the Atlantic.

The Motagua River flooded 19 communities near Guatemala's northeastern border with Honduras.

In El Salvador, there were at least 140 landslides throughout the country.

Civil defense officials said the Acelhuate River that passes through the capital, San Salvador, had risen to dangerous levels and was threatening to overflow into city streets.
Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras all declared emergencies designed to increase immediate government aid and resources.

Guatemala City's La Aurora airport remained closed yesterday because of heavy ash that fell from last week's eruptions of Pacaya volcano.

But volcanic activity had tapered off yesterday, allowing helicopters and small planes to deliver aid to communities still unreachable on washed out roads.

The Honduran national emergency agency Copeco reported one man was crushed to death by a wall that collapsed in the town of Santa Ana, near the capital of Tegucigalpa.

Flooding and slides destroyed 45 homes in the Honduras and prompted authorities to evacuate 1,800 people, according to figures released by the agency.