Floods, Landslides Kill 124 in El Salvador
Monday, November 9, 2009 at 11:26 am under World News Floods, Landslides Kill 124 in El Salvador
SAN SALVADOR: A late season hurricane ravaged parts of Central America on Sunday as floods and landslides killed at least 124 in El Salvador, where the president declared a state of emergency, and thousands left homeless in Nicaragua.
Hurricane Ida, which grew to a Category Two hurricane on Sunday, was moving into the southern Gulf of Mexico, but local officials said they had caused casualties or infrastructure damage in the popular resort town of Cancun.
Forecasters headquarters in Miami, USA National Hurricane Center said Ida had strengthened packing maximum wind speeds of 100 mph (160 kph) as it moved over Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
The tail of Ida, with a low pressure system in the Pacific caused extensive flooding in El Salvador that left 124 people dead, civil defense officials said. Mauricio Funes President declared a state of emergency.
Civil Defense chief Jorge Melendez added that “there could be more fatalities” in the eastern regions of Verapaz and Tepetitan.
In Tepetitan, landslides and overflowing rivers carrying about 30 homes, authorities said. Some residents had agreed to evacuate the area, but a number “refused to leave their homes”, said Mayor Ana Jovel.
In Verapaz, 71 miles (114 km) southeast of the capital San Salvador, officials reported a flood of mud, rocks and tree trunks, ripping through an entire section of the city, burying cars and homes.
A dozen bodies of the victims were removed from the devastation of a local chapel and covered with white sheets, covered with mud, while awaiting identification by relatives.
El Salvador has been in a state of alert since Thursday by heavy rains associated with Ida began to affect the region, destroying an estimated 930 homes and leaving around 13,000 people homeless in Nicaragua.
On Saturday, the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega said his government hopes to make available 4.4 million dollars in aid for those affected by the storm.
At 0001 GMT on Monday, the National Hurricane Center said Ida was about 140 miles (225 km) west-northwest of the western tip of Cuba, moving about 12 miles (19 kilometers) per hour.
He said the center of the storm, currently a category two on the Saffir-Simpson scale with sustained winds of nearly 105 building mph (165 kph), but was forecast to weaken on Monday, the NHC said.
A hurricane watch was issued for parts of the Yucatan Peninsula and to the east of the Mississippi, Alabama, through the border area of northwest Florida.
The NHC said hurricane warning does not cover the city of New Orleans, which was devastated in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.
Forecasters warned Ida could download three to five inches of rain in the Yucatan and western Cuba, with up to eight inches in some places, as well as storm surges and “large and destructive waves.
This year, El Nino Pacific Ocean warming phenomenon has resulted in an Atlantic hurricane season, especially in calm – a welcome respite for the Caribbean and southeastern U.S. residents still smarting from a 2008 pace.
There have been only two other hurricanes in the Atlantic 2009 season, which runs from June 1 through November 30.
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