Site of Nicaragua Mudslide Becomes National Cemetery

After a kiss from his aunt, 12-year-old Isaiah Vasquez was nailed into a gray wooden coffin Wednesday by family members who, even in grief, still counted themselves lucky. At least they know where he is buried.

That is not true with regard to many of the 1,200 or more victims of the Casitas Volcano mudslide, which appears to be the largest single disaster caused by tropical storm Mitch. It may not be true in relation to other missing family members either.

No one knows yet how many people were killed in the mudslide, but the tragedy could account for one-fourth or more of the 9,000 deaths blamed throughout the region so far on what was once a Category 5 hurricane.

Isaiah was buried just a few yards away from the sugar cane mill where witnesses said Health Ministry workers had burned 20 unidentified bodies a few hours earlier in an effort to prevent epidemics.

The Vasquez family farm lay in the path of the massive mudslide that began when Mitch’s torrential rains broke the side of the Casitas Volcano here in western Nicaragua on Friday. Water from the rain and the lake in the crater mixed with lava, forming a wall of mud that covered entire villages.

Mud washed down the mountain to the county seat here, carrying trees that now lie upended in fields with their roots reaching toward the sky amid bodies scraped and broken beyond recognition.

A few corpses made it all the way to the sugar mill, but most stopped farther up the mountain in a cane field.

Mud Still Obstacle for Grieving Relative

Norberto Miranda, a 26-year-old farm worker, tried pushing through the soft muck Tuesday toward the village of Los Rodriguez, where his uncles and cousins lived, but turned back.

“I just couldn’t do it, I kept sinking,” he said softly. “The whole family is there.”

Most of those killed by Mitch were in neighboring Honduras, where officials estimated the death toll at 7,000 and listed an additional 11,000 as missing.

Days of heavy rain turned Honduras’ largest cities into virtual islands, accessible only by air. The country’s roads sustained $2 billion in damage, nearly one-third of the country’s gross domestic product and double the government’s budget, said Finance Minister Gabriela Nunez.

Aircraft Shortage Hampers Efforts

Nearly all available aircraft were being used to search for survivors in isolated towns, leaving a severe shortage of airplanes and helicopters to deliver aid in Honduras.

“There are medicines available, but the problem is the same: How do we transport it?” said a frustrated Andres Aguiriano Duarte, deputy commissioner of the government’s emergency committee.

More than 200 people were reported dead in El Salvador, and almost 200 died in Guatemala, officials in those neighboring countries said.

Late Wednesday, a revived tropical storm Mitch raced across the Gulf of Mexico toward southern Florida and the Florida Keys, buffeting the region with rain, wind gusts up to 50 mph and tornadoes.

In Nicaragua, President Arnoldo Aleman told a grief-stricken nation that it probably never will know exactly how many people died in the mudslide. Most of the bodies that are found will never be identified. Worried about epidemics amid the devastation left by Mitch, the government has ordered bodies burned, even as the search for survivors continues.

The government has found 1,200 bodies, but an additional 1,420 people are still missing. Burying all of the dead would be impossible, Aleman said.

“Some have been given a Christian burial. Others will be burned. . . . We will declare the area a cemetery.”

Nationwide, the Nicaraguan government estimates that more than 1,650 people have died and that an additional 1,850 are missing.

Radio stations broadcast scores of calls from distraught relatives begging for information about villages made inaccessible by collapsed bridges and washed-out roads.

“This is a worse blow than what happened in 1972,” Aleman said, referring to the earthquake that destroyed the capital, Managua. Both the earthquake and Hurricane Gilbert, which devastated the Atlantic coast in 1980, were localized disasters, he said. Aid could be taken to the affected area and distributed efficiently.

In contrast, Mitch wreaked damage throughout the nation, crippling efforts to reach survivors.

“We cannot get food to people by road,” said Vice President Enrique Bolanos, who heads the National Emergency Committee. “The helicopters are the bottleneck.”

Panama, Mexico and the United States have all offered to lend Nicaragua helicopters. However, delivery of the U.S. and Mexican choppers has been delayed by rain.

Two Brothers Found Waist-Deep in Rubble

Only thanks to helicopters were relatives able to attend young Isaiah’s burial and have hopes that his brother, Isaac, 9, will survive. A rescue helicopter found the two youngsters waist-deep in rubble on Sunday and took them to a nearby hospital, where Isaiah died.

Their mother, father, two sisters and 17 other members of their father’s family disappeared.

Isaac is conscious and appears to be recovering, although his left eye was severely bruised, said Jose Santliz, the boy’s uncle.

“I am going to raise him,” said his grandmother, Candida Morales, fighting back tears. “He is the only child left of my only daughter.”

* L.A. OUTREACH: Donations are piling up for victims of Mitch. B1