Death Toll in Central America Flooding Rises

The death toll from two weeks of heavy rains in Central America continued to climb Wednesday as floods ripped away bridges and buried homes in a region savaged a year ago by Hurricane Mitch.

A schoolteacher and a government clerk were drowned in a river in the eastern part of El Salvador, bringing the body count in that country to eight, officials said.

Jorge Escobar, governor of La Union province, said the two people drowned in the La Cuevona River, about 120 miles east of San Salvador.

Heavy rains that have pummeled El Salvador for more than a week have forced the evacuation of thousands of people from danger zones in low-lying areas in seven of 14 provinces. Officials declared a state of emergency Tuesday.

In neighboring Honduras, the Permanent Contingencies Commission disaster agency reported 20 dead, more than 10,000 evacuated, dozens of villages cut off and almost 1,000 homes destroyed or damaged.

Both countries were savaged last October by Hurricane Mitch, one of the strongest Atlantic storms this century, which killed about 10,000 people.

In Nicaragua, further south, which was also hit hard by Mitch, the Red Cross reported eight deaths by Wednesday afternoon because of the rains of the past days.

About 4,000 people had been affected by flooding, with hundreds staying in 12 refugee shelters nationwide, Red Cross spokeswoman Leonora Rivera said.

The World Food Program and other organizations were distributing food and supplies, while the Red Cross and Civil Defense continued rescue efforts, hampered by destruction along 29 roads and several bridges.

Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman reactivated the National Emergency Committee, formed during Hurricane Mitch’s rampage.

Communities around the country remained isolated by flood waters, though the rains had begun to dwindle.

Forty-one families were camped out at the Troila refugee camp in a rural section of Leon, about 60 miles northwest of Managua, the capital, and 54 more families remained in their homes nearby, cut off by overflowing rivers and creeks.

“This is as bad as the war,” said Mercedes Juarez, 60, referring to the Central American nation’s civil war in the 1980s.