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Hurricane Eta left about 200 dead or missing in seven Central American countries, mainly Guatemala, and could hit Cuba, Jamaica and Florida starting Sunday, local officials said today.
The hurricane has lost its intensity and weathered the tropical storm, but the United States Hurricane Center expects it to pick up strength in the Caribbean Sea and head to the Gulf of Mexico.
The village of Queja, in northern Guatemala, was almost completely buried by a landslide and recorded most of the victims.
“Between dead and missing, the numbers [ainda] unofficial reports indicate about 150 dead, “Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said at a press conference.
In recent days, Eta hit the Central American coast as a Category 4 hurricane, with winds of 140 km / h, and gradually weakened as it passed over Nicaragua and Honduras.
Its torrential rains have also hit Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador, as well as Mexico, where the authorities of Chiapas, one of the poorest states in the country, have announced the discovery of at least 20 victims, most of them due to an increase of the river waters.
Governments and humanitarian organizations have warned that floods and landslides caused by heavy rains have created human disasters across much of the region.
In Nicaragua, dozens of victims roam the rubble of their homes that have been submerged by heavy rain and their zinc roofs blown away by hurricane blasts, according to AFP.
The port city of Bilwi, the main city on Nicaragua’s northern Caribbean coast, is isolated from the rest of the country by the flooding of the Wawa River, which can now only be crossed by boat.
The hurricane caused the deaths of two gold miners, but authorities have not yet fully assessed the damage, Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo said.
Eight people have died in Honduras, buried in the collapse of their homes or drowned in the floods, and there may be other victims, warned the head of the Disaster Commission of the Permanent Emergency Commission (Copeco), Marvin Aparicio.
In Panama, the damage is concentrated in the province of Chiriqui, on the border with Costa Rica, where five people, including three children, have died from landslides.
Rescue team members, who have to tackle blocked roads and bridges to reach the affected area, fear that more people could be killed in the rubble of houses.
In Costa Rica, a landslide buried a home Thursday, killing two people, including a 70-year-old American, in the municipality of Coto Brus, on the border with Panama.
In El Salvador, a fisherman was the victim of bad weather, while about 1,700 people were previously removed and housed in shelters, civil protection said.
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