Death toll in Guatemalan mudslide reaches 253, as 374 still remain missing
Published October 10, 2015
Rescuers leave after a day of searching for victims of a mudslide in Cambray, a neighborhood in the suburb of Santa Catarina Pinula, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Friday, Oct. 9, 2015. The death toll of the massive landslide has risen over 250 as the search for victims entered its second week. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) – The
death toll from the mammoth landslide that buried a neighborhood on the
outskirts of Guatemala's capital has risen to 253 as the search for
victims enters its second week. Nearly 400 people were still missing
Friday.
Read More Here| October 03 2015 02:50 AM | Landslide | Guatemala | Municipio de Santa Catarina Pinula, El Cambray Dos |  |  |
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Sunday, 04 October, 2015 at 09:50 UTC
At least 30 people were dead and several hundred missing a day after a landslide smashed through a village on the outskirts of the Guatemalan capital, officials said. More than 500 rescue workers, police and soldiers, as well as desperate residents, clawed away at the debris with picks and shovels searching for survivors all day and into the late evening, before suspending the painstaking hunt for the night. Families reported receiving text messages from people they believed to still be trapped, more than 24 hours after the landslide struck the village of El Cambray II, in the municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula. Authorities said that about 600 people are missing and they expect the death toll to rise. Their estimate is based on the 125 homes that Thursday's landslide destroyed or damaged after heavy rain. The affected area is about 15 kilometers (10 miles) east of the capital Guatemala City. "We have 29 dead people identified and one still unidentified," Sergio Cabanas, incident commander for the government's disaster reduction office CONRAD, told AFP. The victims include at least three children. Thirty-four people were pulled out alive from the mud and rubble, while 25 others were injured, CONRAD officials said. The impact of the heavy rain was exacerbated by a nearby river, officials said. Municipal authorities had urged the community several times to relocate, most recently in November last year. Amid the debris Josue Coloma, a 40-year-old mechanic, anxiously looked on as a rescue crew dug through the mud searching for any sign of his two nephews, ages 11 and 14. "My nephews should be in the place where I'm standing," Coloma told AFP. "I have trust in God that they are well." Two other relatives who were with the kids at the time of the landslide were pulled out alive, Coloma said, while their parents survived because they were out of the house at a religious service. "The rescue job is very difficult because of the terrain -- it's practically as if it were a mountain," said Cecilio Chacaj, a rescuer with a local firefighter unit. Soon after Chacaj spoke to AFP he pulled out a survivor from the debris. President Alejandro Maldonado said that several countries, including the United States and Cuba, had offered to help. "We are a beautiful country but unfortunately we are vulnerable to this type of catastrophes," Maldonado told reporters. The hunt for survivors was expected to resume at sun rise. Eight people had already died in previous weather-related events tied to Guatemala's rainy season, which lasts from May to November, according to government data. Last year's rainy season was linked to 29 deaths and damage to more than 9,000 homes.
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Sunday, 04 October, 2015 at 03:08 UTC
A Guatemalan emergency official says the number of people killed when a hillside collapsed Friday on more than 100 homes has risen to 56. Julio Sanchez, a spokesperson for Guatemala's volunteer firefighters, says officials estimate that 350 people remain missing. The previous death toll was 30 and estimates of the number of missing had been as high as 600. Rescue specialists from the Red Cross and fire and police departments were using dogs to search for possible survivors in the mudslide zone on the outskirts of Guatemala City, where tons of earth fell over some 125 homes, authorities from the region estimate.
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Sunday, 04 October, 2015 at 16:07 UTC
Hopes faded of finding any remaining survivors of a massive landslide in Guatemala that killed at least 86 people, even as families scrabbled through rubble to find the bodies of loved-ones, with hundreds of others still missing. Distraught relatives of the victims shoveled alongside diggers through the mounds of earth that destroyed homes in Santa Catarina Pinula on the southeastern flank of Guatemala City after Thursday night's collapse of a hillside. Every batch of earth turned up by the diggers held more personal belongings, from mattresses and books to toys and Christmas decorations, reminders of around 350 people who authorities said were still unaccounted for. Clutching photos of loved-ones, family members stood in line outside a makeshift morgue near the excavation site, some of them crying, to see if they recognized any corpses. "This is the worst thing that has happened to us," said Ana Maria Escobar, a 48-year-old housewife, sobbing as she waited for news of 21 missing family members who lived in the town she had left a year ago. "So far only my sister-in-law has been found," she added. One digger unearthed the body of a little girl with scratch marks on her arms and legs, which rescue workers said may have been signs of her struggles to escape. People looking on cried out to prevent the digger from destroying her body. Gaby Ramirez, an 18-year-old courier, had been searching for her brother with shovel in hand since 6 a.m., after the landslide buried a neighbor's house he was visiting. "I don't hope to find him alive, but I do hope to find his body and bury him," she said. "I have to bury him, I can't leave him there." Loosened by rain, tons of earth, rock and trees had cascaded onto a neighborhood of the town known as El Cambray II near the bottom of a ravine, flattening houses and trapping residents who had gone home for the night. Some houses were buried under about 50 feet (15 meters) of earth, and Guatemalan disaster agency Conred said it doubted any other survivors would be found. "Hope is the last think you lose, so we hope to find someone alive," said Guatemala's defense minister Williams Mansilla, though he also acknowledged the likelihood was very low. At last count, the Attorney General's office reported 86 dead via Twitter, though fears that hundreds more remain trapped threaten to make the landslide one of the worst natural disasters to hit Central America in recent years. Among the dead were 17 children, and at least 26 people were injured. On Friday, there were reports of family members receiving text messages of buried survivors asking to be rescued. Authorities said they did not rescue a single survivor on Saturday despite a team of around 1,800 volunteers, soldiers and firemen. But some 400 survivors had been evacuated in total from the site since the tragedy, they added. The search was scheduled to end around 7.30 p.m. local time, and in keeping with international protocol, it would be relaunched for at least one more day on Sunday. Due to the unstable terrain and wet weather, volunteers would no longer be allowed to assist on Sunday. The tragedy has hit Guatemala after weeks of political turmoil, just as it prepares to elect a new president. Last month, outgoing President Otto Perez was forced to stand down and was arrested on corruption charges. In October 2005, heavy rainfall triggered a devastating landslide in Panabaj in the southwest of the Central American country, burying the village. Hundreds of people are believed to have died, and many of the bodies were never recovered.
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| Updated: | Monday, 05 October, 2015 at 02:55 UTC |
| Description | |
| At least 131 people were killed in mudslides that smashed into a village outside Guatemala City, officials said, three days after the disaster struck the Central American nation. "Unfortunately, a new count shows that there are 131 confirmed dead and recovered," and still about 300 people missing and unaccounted for, said volunteer fire brigade spokesman Julio Sanchez. He told reporters yesterday that several young children, including newborn babies, were among the dead in Santa Catarina Pinula. On Thursday night, following heavy rain, waterlogged earth and debris tore through the village of El Cambray II, in the municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula, destroying or damaging 125 homes. Relatives of the missing checked in at a makeshift morgue set up next to the buried homes. Municipal authorities had urged the community, about 15 kilometres east of the capital Guatemala City, to relocate several times, most recently in November of last year. But many families have refused, saying that they have nowhere to go. "We can't live here any more," Carlos Hernandez, an electrician who survived the landslide, lamented as he stepped between rescuers with his few remaining belongings on his shoulder. Late yesterday, rescue workers had to suspend their work when rain resumed, making things too dangerous to continue before Monday. The bad news came as, with every passing hour, hopes for finding survivors fade a bit further. | |
| Updated: | Tuesday, 06 October, 2015 at 17:14 UTC |
| Description | |
| The death toll from a mudslide on the outskirts of the Guatemalan capital has climbed to 152, as rescue workers recover more bodies from a hillside. The development came late Monday, with chief of emergency services Alejandro Maldonado saying that at least 300 people were still unaccounted for. The landslide, which was triggered by torrential rains, happened in the Cambray neighborhood in Guatemala City's suburb of Santa Catarina Pinula on October 1. Search crews have found entire families who died huddled together and buried alive. "We found almost all of them huddled together, which means that they were going to try and evacuate but sadly they didn't have time," Sergio Cabanas, an official at Guatemala's National Disaster Reduction Commission, known as the Conred, said. "Some died from the impact, some from asphyxiation and some... from heart attacks," he added. The Conred has now declared the area uninhabitable. | |
| Updated: | Wednesday, 07 October, 2015 at 03:21 UTC |
| Description | |
| The death toll from a landslide caused by heavy rain in Guatemala's Santa Catarina Pinula municipality reached 175, the country's public prosecutor's office said Tuesday. The earlier reports had put the number of victims at 161. More than 300 people remain missing. "Prosecutors [on site] report that 175 bodies have been recovered as of now," the office said on Twitter. The landslide occurred late on Thursday in a suburb located about 9 miles east of the country's capital Guatemala City, burying some 125 homes. Nearly 1,800 people are involved in the ongoing search and rescue operations, including Red Cross workers, police officers and rescue teams. | |
| Updated: | Wednesday, 07 October, 2015 at 18:36 UTC |
| Description | |
| Guatemala raised today the death toll to 186, confirmed by a recent landslide that buried a community near the capital and where there are still nearly 300 missing. The Public Prosecutor updated the data after the morgue received more bodies recovered in the last hours by rescue teams of the country and Mexican brigades. According to the State Coordinator for Disaster Reduction, crews continue to search for the missing with the support of canine units, but with no hope of finding any survivors. A huge landslide buried last Thursday El Cambray II locality, located at 15 kilometers from the Guatemalan capital and where the ground was saturated by the rains of the previous days. That community was included among high-risk areas by poor urban planning and the high concentration of poverty. The government described the tragedy as the worst and strongest of 2015, as it left under mud125 homes and 172 homeless. Moreover, declared uninhabitable the area where the landslide occurred, restricted press access and instructed rescuers to wear masks at all times because of the strong odors emitted by decomposing bodies. On this day national mourning decreed concludes Monday in tribute to the victims. | |
| Updated: | Thursday, 08 October, 2015 at 11:52 UTC |
| Description | |
| Rescue workers pulled 20 more bodies from a landslide outside the Guatemalan capital, bringing the number of confirmed dead to 191, officials have said. "The latest toll of victims is 191," said Julio Sanchez yesterday, a spokesman for the firefighters and other rescue personnel working at the site on the outskirts of Guatemala City. Authorities said about 150 people still have not been accounted for, as they searched for more bodies at the disaster site in the village of Cambray II. A growing stench from decomposing bodies has filled the air at the scene of the tragedy, requiring workers to don face masks as the carry on with their grim recovery efforts. The village -- in a section of the town of Santa Catarina Pinula, some 15 kilometers east of the capital -- was buried late Thursday by a mountain of mud and debris following heavy rains. Rescuers said it would be nothing short of a miracle if anyone were found alive at this point, as they continue their search for more bodies, aided by specially-trained dogs. Officials said they also have opened an investigation to determine who or what might have been responsible for the disaster. | |
| Updated: | Friday, 09 October, 2015 at 02:53 UTC |
| Description | |
| At least 220 bodies have been recovered after a massive landslide buried part of a town in Guatemala last week while about 350 people are missing, national disaster agency Conred said on Thursday. Loosened by heavy rains, a hillside collapsed onto Santa Catarina Pinula on the southeastern flank of Guatemala City on Oct. 1, burying more than a hundred homes under tons of earth, rock and trees, and sparking a huge rescue effort. Conred said 386 people were evacuated after the tragedy, one of the worst in years to strike Central America, a region long been prone to devastating floods. Entire families were buried alive and hundreds of rescue workers have spent the past week trying to dig out bodies. Guatemalan authorities initially said up to 600 people were accounted for in the disaster. Since then, it has given various estimates on the number missing. Prosecutors in Guatemala said they are looking at whether there was any criminal misconduct at the site after Conred had warned of the risks of building homes in the neighbourhood, which lies at the bottom of a deep ravine. | |
| Updated: | Saturday, 10 October, 2015 at 03:01 UTC |
| Description | |
| The death toll from the mammoth landslide that buried a neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala's capital has risen to 253 as the search for victims enters its second week. Nearly 400 people were still missing Friday. Deputy hospitals minister Israel Lemus said officials still had not decided to suspend the search in Santa Catarina Pinula, but planned to meet to discuss it on Monday. Alejandro Maldonado, executive director of the National Disaster Reduction Commission, said the current count of missing people stood at 374. He said 184 homes were affected. Maldonado said the decision to stop or continue looking for bodies would be based on the risk to search crews. | |
| Updated: | Saturday, 10 October, 2015 at 03:01 UTC |
| Description | |
| The death toll from the mammoth landslide that buried a neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala's capital has risen to 253 as the search for victims enters its second week. Nearly 400 people were still missing Friday. Deputy hospitals minister Israel Lemus said officials still had not decided to suspend the search in Santa Catarina Pinula, but planned to meet to discuss it on Monday. Alejandro Maldonado, executive director of the National Disaster Reduction Commission, said the current count of missing people stood at 374. He said 184 homes were affected. Maldonado said the decision to stop or continue looking for bodies would be based on the risk to search crews. | |
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