El Salvador hurricane kills 124 and leaves thousands homeless

At least 124 people were killed when flooding and mudslides triggered by hurricane Ida buried a small town in El Salvador yesterday. Across the country, 100mph winds and heavy rains made rivers burst their banks and hillsides collapse swallowing up hundreds of families’ homes. Thousands of families have been taken to shelters, but many towns are still cut off. Some of the worst damage was in Verapaz, where mudslides covered cars and two meter -wide boulders blocked streets. The rain loosened mud and rocks from the nearby Chichontepec volcano and buried homes and streets in the town, about 30 miles east of San Salvador, the capital. Hundreds of soldiers, police and residents dug through rock and debris in Verapaz looking for another 60 people missing from the mudslide, which struck before dawn while people were still in bed.

Matias Mendoza, 26, was at home with his wife Claudia and their year-old son, Franklin. “It was about two in the morning when the rain started coming down harder, and the earth started shaking,” Mr Mendoza told The Times newspaper. “I warned my wife and grabbed my son, and all of a sudden we heard a sound. The next thing I knew I was lying among parts of the walls of my house.” “A few minutes later, I found my wife and my son in the middle of the rubble, and, thank God, we're alive.” After flying over the worst-hit areas, Interior Minister Humberto Centeno described the scene in Verapaz as “a real tragedy”.

It comes after three days of downpours from Hurricane Ida, which brushed Mexico's Cancun tourist resort on yesterday before steaming into the Gulf of Mexico.Speaking on national radio, El Salvador's president Mauricio Funes called the disaster "a tragedy." He declared a national emergency and said he would work with the United Nations to evaluate the extent of the damage. “The images that we have seen today are of a devastated country,” Mr Funes said. He called the damages incalculable. “It was terrible,” said Manuel Melendez, 61, who lived a few doors down from Mr Mendoza. Both their homes were destroyed. “The rocks came down on top of the houses and split them in two, and split the pavement,” he said. “I heard people screaming all around.”

The floods and mudslides triggered by the hurricane that swept through El Salvador caused severe damage in the SOS Children's Village San Vicente, close to the capital San Salvador. Though there is no full report on the extent of the damages available yet, it seems clear that these have been significant. We will inform you of the full extent of the damages as soon as the assessment has been completed.