Guatemalan rescuers search for bodies as strengthening Eta heads for Cuba

7 November 2020, 10:34

The aftermath of Hurricane Eta
Honduras Tropical Weather. Picture: PA

Around 100 people are believed to have been buried by a landslide.

Searchers in Guatemala are looking for an estimated 100 people believed buried by a landslide as the remnants of Hurricane Eta strengthened on the way to Cuba.

Eta is forecast to become a tropical storm again on Saturday as it moves over the Caribbean Sea, and the US National Hurricane Centre issued tropical storm watches for the north-western Bahamas, southern Florida and the Florida Keys.

The centre of Eta is expected to approach the Cayman Islands on Saturday, come near on Cuba over Saturday night and Sunday, and approach the Florida Keys or south Florida late on Sunday.

Hurricane Eta aftermath
A resident walks through flooded streets in Planeta, Honduras (AP)

Back in Central America, which Eta reached as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday before weakening into a tropical depression, authorities from Panama to Mexico are still surveying damage from flooding and landslides following days of torrential rains.

The death toll is in the dozens and expected to rise.

On Friday, search teams in Guatemalan pulled the first bodies from a landslide in San Cristobal Verapaz.

Teams first had to overcome multiple landslides and deep mud just to reach the site where officials have estimated some 150 homes were devastated.

The storm in Guatemala
A blocked road in Purulha, northern Guatemala (AP)

In neighboring Honduras, 68-year-old Maria Elena Mejia Guadron died when the brown waters of the Chamelecon river poured into San Pedro Sula’s Planeta area before dawn Thursday.

Mirian Esperanza Najera Mejia had fled her home in the dark with her two children and Mejia, her mother. But while she held tight to her children, the current swept away Mejia.

Najera continued searching desperately for her mother on Friday morning. But Mejia’s body was recovered later and taken to the morgue where her relatives identified her.

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 officials.

The worst incident in Mexico occurred in the mountain township of Chenalho, where 10 people were swept away by a rain-swollen stream. Their bodies were later found downstream.

Rescue efforts in Honduras
Police help residents move to higher ground in Planeta, Honduras (AP)

Mexico’s National Meteorological Service said Eta’s “broad circulation is causing intense to torrential rains on the Yucatan peninsula and in south-eastern Mexico”.

But the massive slide in Guatemala’s central mountains threatened to double Central America’s reported death toll in one remote community.

Late Friday, an army spokesman said soldiers and community members had recovered the first three bodies. Hundreds of tonnes of mud, rock and debris entombed others.

Rescue teams struggled for hours to reach the site from two different approaches. Smaller landslides blocked highways and decimated the dirt road leading to the community of Queja at the base of the slide.

The indigenous community of about 1,200 residents consisted of simple homes of wood and tin roofs clinging to the mountainside.

Tropical Depression Eta was centred 275 miles west-southwest of Grand Cayman late on Friday. It was moving north-east at 12mph and had maximum sustained winds of 35mph.

Hurricane Eta’s arrival in north-east 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 areas where families were forced onto rooftops to wait for rescue.

The Honduran government estimates more than 1.6 million have been affected. It said rescues were under way in San Pedro Sula and La Lima, but resources are limited.

The US state department said four US helicopters from the Soto Cano Air Base near Tegucigalpa had flown to San Pedro Sula to participate in rescue operations.

US helicopters are also assisting in Panama where authorities confirmed five deaths in the western province of Chiriqui, which borders Costa Rica.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Video footage shows the convoy had emergency lights flashing when it was hit

Israel admits ‘mistakenly’ killing 15 aid workers after video leak contradicted official version of events

Jaguar Land Rover has paused shipments to the US in the wake of 'Liberation Day' tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover halts shipments to US in wake of tariffs as Trump insists he'll win 'economic revolution'

Flowers and toys left on a swing seat to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday

Death toll from Russian strike on Zelenskyy's home town rises as 18 confirmed dead - including nine children

Donald Trump's 10% tariff on UK products has officially come into force

Trump tariffs come into force as global stock markets plunge deeper into the red

Tom Howard

British tourist killed after being struck by boulder on trek through Himalayas

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a car burns following a Russian missile attack that killed more than a dozen people, including children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia kills 16 people including three children in missile strike on Zelenskyy's home town, with dozens wounded

Travel influencer Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to North Sentinel Island

Tourist who left Coke for world's most isolated tribe 'could have wiped them all out' - and police 'can't go collect can'

White House weighs in to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

White House looking to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

This image provided by NASA shows Nick Hague, right, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore. (NASA via AP)

Stranded NASA astronauts reveal they were almost trapped in space 'forever' after horror malfunction

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen'

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen' after far-right leader found guilty of embezzlement in 'witch hunt'

China will impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on imports from the US

China announces additional 34% tariffs on US imports in retaliation over Trump's 'Liberation Day' levies

Friends of Prince Andrew say he's "unsurprised" Giuffre made the post

Prince Andrew 'not surprised' his accuser shared shock post saying she had 'four days to live'

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol

South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol removed from office as impeachment upheld over martial law declaration

Virginia Giuffre

Woman driving Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre during crash that left her with 'four days to live' breaks silence

Exclusive
'Donald Trump has made Putin comfortable,' Mikhail Khodorkovsky has warned

'Trump has made Putin comfortable' despite massive Ukraine war losses, exiled former oligarch tells LBC

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were discovered by a neighbour.

British couple found dead in south of France home being ‘treated as murder-suicide’