Global Weather News - 07 October 2005

[senorpepr]

MORE CENTRAL AMERICAN FLOODING

TECPAN, Guatemala (Reuters) - A huge mudslide engulfed dozens of homes in Guatemala's Maya Indian highlands, killing 40 people as rains and flash floods from Hurricane Stan devastated Central America and southern Mexico.

The tragedy struck two indigenous hamlets in the municipality of Santiago Atitlan, a popular destination for U.S. and European tourists, injuring some 300 people, local government officials said on Thursday.

With the new victims, 211 people have now died in floods and mudslides in Central America and southern Mexico in the last few days in the wake of Hurricane Stan.

Benedicto Giron, spokesman for the civil protection agency said he did not know how many people were missing in the landslide but rescue workers told Guatemalan radio that hundreds might be unaccounted for.

Roads blocked by mud, rocks and tree trunks made it tough for rescue workers to reach the area, in the department of Solola. Helicopters were grounded due to thick fog.

"We are trying to get help to these people but the weather has not improved in that region where it is still raining," Giron told a radio station. "We are going to send our support forces to Solola."

Santiago Atitlan sits on Lake Atitlan, a collapsed volcanic cone filled with turquoise water.

Rain-sodden hills collapsed throughout the region, burying mostly poor peasants. Many of the victims lived in flimsy wooden and tin shacks.

As floodwaters blocked rescue efforts across Central America, mourning Mayan villagers solemnly laid out the dead.

"I have nothing, the water took everything," said Basilio Garcia, weeping beside the body of his 10-year-old granddaughter in a fire station in Tecpan, west of Guatemala City.

Six corpses were laid out on the floor and surrounded by mourning townspeople in traditional dress.

Garcia saved his daughter from two mudslides that engulfed more than 30 homes in their nearby hamlet on Wednesday, but his granddaughter was killed and three other family members were still missing.

The tragedy brought back memories of Hurricane Mitch, which killed some 10,000 people in Central America in 1998, mainly in Honduras and Nicaragua, with mudslides and flooding.

An unknown number of foreigners were trapped at the Guatemalan resort of Panajachel, also on Lake Atitlan.

"The area was cut off by mudslides. We understand there are a good number of tourists there," Defense Minister Carlos Aldana said at an airfield in Guatemala City.

Few rescue workers had been able to reach the area, however, and communication was still cut off.

Guatemala confirmed 119 deaths and said the toll would surely rise. There were at least 65 dead in El Salvador, 13 in Mexico, 10 in Nicaragua and four in Honduras.

Troops across Central America and southern Mexico tried to reach flooded areas with drinking water, food and medical kits but relentless rains and washed out roads made it difficult.

Meteorologists predicted the rains would continue for the rest of the week.

The flooding came from storms sparked by Hurricane Stan, which smashed into Mexico from the Atlantic earlier this week.

Stan quickly weakened but days of rains swelled normally slow rivers into thundering, brown torrents that swept away bridges, houses, roads and trees across the region.

Dozens of fishing villages on Guatemala's Pacific coast were cut off by flooding.

"We need food. We have no money and help is not reaching us," said Graciela Lopez, an elderly resident of Puerto San Jose on Guatemala's Pacific coast.

Nearby, large metal shipping containers broke free and floated in the flood waters.

Around 2,500 homes were destroyed in Mexico's bustling southern city of Tapachula, on the border with Guatemala. Entire neighborhoods were deep in water and families spent the night on roofs, waiting to be rescued.

DEADLY NORTHERN BANGLADESH FLOODING

Oct 7, 2005 — BOGRA, Bangladesh (Reuters) - At least 12 people have died, up to 50,000 have fled their homes and about 1.5 million are marooned following heavy rains that flooded several districts in northern Bangladesh, government officials said on Friday.

The deaths were mostly caused by the collapse of dozens of mud houses, an official told reporters in the town of Bogra, one of the areas affected by the flood, about 200 km (125 miles) north of Dhaka.

Thousands of families were camped out in schools and river embankments, displaced by the second wave of flooding in the northern region this year.

FLOODING IN NORTHWEST CHINA

Floods have forced about 285,000 people to flee their homes in China's north-west, where steady rainfall since late last month has strained the banks of key rivers.

The China Daily newspaper reports the rising water levels have affected more than 3 million people in Shaanxi province, and flooding in some areas is said to be the most severe since 1981.

The paper has not reported any deaths, but China's Xhinua news agency earlier said the rains killed 16 people.

Flooding is common in China this time of year, and regularly claims thousands of lives.

Observers say the problem is compounded by deforestation, as the rains trigger rock slides and mud flows off bare mountainsides.

EROSION FROM TROPICAL STORM TAMMY FORCES CLOSING OF PART OF FLORIDA HIGHWAY

FLAGLER BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Sections of State Route A1A were closed for the second time in less than a month Thursday after weathering Tropical Storm Tammy's pounding surf.

Florida Department of Transportation workers were dumping tons of rock and sand into spots where the waves breached a line of rock protecting the road from washout.

Flagler County spokesman Carl Laundrie said sections would likely be closed until Friday morning.

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

Yikes! Some nasty flooding problems worldwide...