Guatemala declares state of calamity due to torrential rains

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on Sunday declared a state of public calamity across the country for 30 days, after five days of heavy rains and ensuing flooding have caused 28 deaths and affected 147,000 people. "We have decided to declare the state of public calamity in all the country before the magnitude of the disaster," Colom told a press conference at the National Coordination Office for Disasters ' Reduction (Conred). Colom said the tropical storm, which began on Tuesday and lasted until Saturday with intense and constant rains, has flooded hundreds of towns in Guatemala and affected tens of thousands of people. He denied that the state of calamity will affect the development of the presidential run-off between candidates Otto Perez and Manuel Baldizon, scheduled for Nov. 6. Conred has announced that as a result of the rain disaster, there are also 11 people injured and three missing in the country. It adds that some 12,000 people have been evacuated, 6,913 now live in shelters, and more than 29,000 are still at risk. According to the Guatemalan National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology, rains are expected to continue across the country on Sunday and Monday.