Guatemala City: Flooding and landslides from the season's first tropical storm have killed at least 142 people and left thousands homeless in Central America, officials have said.
Dozens of people are still missing and emergency crews are struggling to reach isolated communities cut off by washed-out roads and collapsed bridges caused by Tropical Storm Agatha.
The sun emerged on Monday in hardest-hit Guatemala, where officials reported 118 dead and 53 missing. In the department of Chimaltenango - a province west of Guatemala City landslides buried dozens of rural Indian communities and killed at least 60 people, Gov Erick de Leon said.
"The department has collapsed," de Leon said. "There are a lot of dead people. The roads are blocked. The shelters are overflowing. We need water, food, clothes, blankets but above
all, money."
In the tiny village of Parajbei, a slide smothered three homes and killed 11 people.
"It was raining really hard and there was a huge noise," said Vicente Azcaj, 56, who ran outside and saw that a hill had crumbled.
"Now everyone is afraid that the same will happen to their homes."
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