SAN PEDRO SULA – Guatemalan search brigades pulled the first bodies Friday from a massive rain-fueled landslide where at least 100 people are believed to be entombed, as the remains of Hurricane Eta moved across Caribbean waters, strengthening en route to Cuba.
Governments worked to tally the displaced and dead, and recover bodies from landslides and flooding caused by Eta, now a tropical depression, that claimed dozens of lives from Mexico to Panama.
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In southern Mexico, across the border from Guatemala, 19 people died as heavy rains attributed to Eta caused mudslides and swelled streams and rivers, according to Chiapas state civil defense official Elías Morales Rodríguez.
The worst incident occurred in the mountain township of Chenalho, where 10 people were swept away by a rain-swollen stream; their bodies were later found downstream. Mexico's National Meteorological Service said Eta's “broad circulation is causing intense to torrential rains on the Yucatan peninsula and in southeastern Mexico.”
In Guatemala, the first army brigade reached a massive landslide Friday morning in the central mountains where an estimated 150 homes were buried Thursday. They recovered three bodies, according to an army spokesman. In a news conference, President Alejandro Giammattei said he believed there were at least 100 dead there in San Cristobal Verapaz, but noted that was still unconfirmed.
“The panorama is complicated in that area,” he said, noting rescuers were struggling to access the site.
Tropical Depression Eta was centered 275 miles (445 kilometers) west-southwest of Grand Cayman. It was moving northeast at 12 mph (19 kph) and had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph).
Hurricane Eta’s arrival Tuesday afternoon in northeast Nicaragua followed days of drenching rain as it crawled toward shore. Its slow, meandering path north through Honduras pushed rivers over their banks and pouring into neighborhoods where families were forced onto rooftops to wait for rescue.
Wendi Munguía Figueroa, 48, and nine relatives huddled Friday morning on the corrugated metal roof of her home in Honduras surrounded by brown floodwaters, but with little drinking water remaining.
“We can’t get off our houses’ roofs because the water is up to our necks in the street,” Munguía said. She managed about two hours of sleep Thursday night between the intermittent rain and damp chill.
Munguía had yet to see any rescue boats or any authorities. Her neighbors likewise occupied their roofs.
Her home in La Lima, a San Pedro Sula suburb, is 150 feet from the roiling Chamelecon river and only a short way from the international airport’s runway. The neighborhood flooded in 1998 during Hurricane Mitch — a storm that killed more than 9,000 people in Central America — but Munguía said there is more water this time.
It had been raining hard since Monday even though Eta’s center didn’t enter Honduras until Wednesday. Anticipating flooding they had started raising appliances and other household items, but the water entered in a torrent Thursday morning.
“In 10 minutes my house filled up,” she said. “We couldn’t escape in any direction because everywhere was full of water.”
Francisco Argeñal, chief meteorologist at the Center for Atmospheric, Oceanographic and Seismic Studies, said as much as 8 inches of rain had fallen in just the past two days in some areas.
The death toll in Honduras rose to at least 21 people Friday, confirmed by local authorities, but the country’s emergency management agency reported only eight.
“We know there are a lot of dead people, we’ve seen them, but until we receive official information we can’t certify them,” explained Marvin Aparicio, head of the agency’s incident command system. “In the coming hours, we are going to start to see, to our regret, Dante-esque scenes of people found dead” as floodwaters recede.
The government estimates more than 1.6 million have been affected. It said rescues were happening Friday in San Pedro Sula and La Lima, but the need was great and resources limited.
The U.S. State Department said in a statement Friday that four U.S. helicopters from the Soto Cano Air Base near Tegucigalpa had flown to San Pedro Sula to participate in rescue operations. U.S. helicopters were also assisting in Panama where authorities confirmed five deaths in the western province of Chiriqui, which borders Costa Rica.
Observers are already anticipating that the havoc wrought by Eta will pressure more people to migrate from countries that are already some of the primary senders of migrants to the United States border in recent years.
The forecast had Eta strengthening to a tropical storm late Friday before nearing the Cayman Islands Saturday and crossing Cuba Sunday. From there it could reach Florida or eventually head toward the U.S. Gulf coast, though the long-term path remained uncertain.
“Whatever comes out (of Central America) is going to linger a while,” said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach. “I’m not convinced we’re done with Eta.”
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Associated Press writers Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Seth Borenstein in Kensington, Maryland and Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.