Hurricane Stan kills 133 in Mexico, Central America
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-06 09:17

Huge mudslides, flooding and torrential rains from Hurricane Stan have killed at least 133 people in Central America and southern Mexico, rescue workers said on Wednesday.

Relentless rain pounded mountain villages and urban shanty towns across the impoverished region, and hillsides collapsed under four days of downpours.

The death toll nearly doubled on Wednesday when rivers burst their banks in southern Mexico, and emergency teams found another 42 people buried under several feet of mud in remote Guatemalan towns.

The government said the death toll would rise and unconfirmed reports said hundreds may have been killed in an isolated region of western Guatemala.

Entire families were missing after a river of mud, trees and rocks descended on the hill town of Tecpan, west of the capital, destroying more than 30 flimsy homes.

A woman walks on a flooded street at the Veracruz port in Mexico October 4, 2005. [Reuters]

"A lot of people could not get out," said Samuel Cif, a local peasant.

Two dead children were found and villagers were too scared of more landslides to dig for other victims.

Clothes, trees and the roofs were strewn around and heavy rain still pounded the area.

The tragedy brought back memories of Hurricane Mitch, which killed some 10,000 people in 1998 in Central America, mainly in Honduras and Nicaragua, with mudslides and flooding.

Stan dumped about half the amount of water on Guatemala in five days that Mitch deposited in only three days, meteorologists said.

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