Mudslides, rains leave more than 60 dead in Central America

A massive mudslide in western El Salvador killed at least nine people, officials said Sunday, raising the death toll from a week of intense rains to 27. More than 60 people have lost their lives across Central America as a result of the rains. The landslide late Saturday saw a hillside some 100 meters (some 330 feet) high come crashing down in Ciudad Arce in western El Salvador, entombing five dwellings. Officials said the search for possible survivors has been slowed by the unrelenting rainfall. "There's been more water that ever seen in the history of Ciudad Arce," said Roberto Miranda, a local emergency coordinator, speaking on Salvadoran radio. Heavy rains brought by a tropical depression have soaked the Central America for several days, causing numerous deaths in Guatemala and Nicaragua, in addition to the fatalities in El Salvador. In Guatemala, President Alvaro Colom declared a "state of calamity" after the death toll there reached 26 after five days of heavy rains. In the most recent incident, a mudslide buried five members of a single family inside a house in Boca del Monte, Villa Canales, 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of Guatemala City. Rescuers have recovered seven bodies in Nicaragua and two in Honduras.