Green | October 19, 2011 | 12 comments

Intense rains in Central America causing death toll to rise

source: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Central_America_toll_from_rains_climbs_above_90_999.html

JanforGore
More than 90 people were counted dead Tuesday from heavy rains pounding Central America after Guatemala reported more people swept away by raging floodwaters and Costa Rica found four drowned.

An estimated 700,000 people were displaced by floods and landslides following as much as 120 centimeters (47 inches) of rain in the past week in some areas -- three times the monthly average this season -- officials said.

In Guatemala, five more deaths were reported, including four swept away, bringing the death toll to 34 over the past week in a nation that has been hit particularly hard in 2011 by flooding and heavy rains, officials said.

The mayor of the northern Guatemala community of Mixco, Amilcar Rivera, reported the four new deaths and warned the toll may rise further.

US Ambassador Arnold Chacon said the diplomatic mission would offer the use of six helicopters used in anti-narcotics efforts for search and rescue operations in Guatemala. The envoy said $50,000 in humanitarian aid would also be offered.

In Costa Rica, Red Cross officials reported four people had drowned across the country, with the victims attempting to cross swollen rivers.

Authorities have gone on high alert across the mountainous region, home to 42 million people, as the rains have shown no sign of abating.

The unusually heavy rainfall came as the region was pounded from one weather system from the Pacific and another from the Caribbean.

El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes warned late Monday that his country was facing a "major emergency," with 32 dead, three missing and some 32,000 people evacuated, saying the rainfall exceeded that caused by past hurricanes.

"The intensity of the rainfall, the duration of the phenomenon and the extent of the affected territory presents us with a major emergency," he said.

Another 13 deaths were reported in Honduras and eight in Nicaragua, according to local officials, with the overall toll expected to rise as reports from isolated villages begin to trickle in.

Officials also fear further casualties from fresh mudslides, shortages of basic goods in isolated towns and disease spawned by the stagnant water.

Hard-hit El Salvador has launched a worldwide appeal for humanitarian assistance due to the intense rain.


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  1. groups:
    Green,   Earth and Science,   Sustainable Agriculture,   Earth Care,   4 more
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Climate Change,  Floods,  Costa Rica,  6 more
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12 comments // Intense rains in Central America causing death toll to rise // Video

  • Changes2Pac
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Changes2Pac:

      That's true! The "church-mindset" is strong within us. American churchgoers suffer a mental corruption getting off on a "Give-to-the-Poor-Foreigners" Complex that gives them a druggies high... as if they too can be a missionary in a foreign land you see.

      So anyone living near United States churchgoers suffering this mental~spiritual corruption is quite DAMNED. The closer you live to us the more damned you are as far as aid goes.

      It also harkens back to something Jesus said => "A prophet is not honored in his home territory". American churchgoers want to feel the appreciative rush enjoyed by soldiers handing out chocolate bars to thankful foreign children.

      This feeling has also infected American doctors who squeeze American patients by their very balls to get paid, and if we don't pay them that last 25 cents on our clinic bill the physicians will hire & employ ENTIRE TEAMS OF LAWYERS to totally destroy their patient's Credit Rating and yet => there they go hopping expensive private jets to go to the ends of the earth to give free medical care to Black darkie natives somewhere in a foreign jungle.

      I am very familiar with your complaint. It's a mental disease my friend. Ever'body wants to feel like gods, high up on a pedestal, God's chosen missionaries. Even United States soldiers have become indoctrinated with this need. We are become a nation of missionaries. If perchance we strafe innocent civilians why that's perfectly OK man => WE ARE MISSIONARIES.

      When we go a'missionaring it justifies our existence. We obtain permission to be Americans. Much like how the scientific community has refused to build my simple yet God-honoring zero exhaust (zero pollution) engine systems. They do not want nor can they abide anything "God-honoring" because they are drowning in We Are the Greatest Soup... so they are driven by Greed to choose systems that honors them and their scientific Tower of Babel pedestals they so cherish standing upon.

      No matter how many of you die.

      You and I and everyone here on Current can roast in hell or in a stew pot over a campfire for all the missionaries care. Doctors take their expertise to non-paying foreigners. Forgiving their debts is after all BIBLICAL. Soldiers go forth to liberate the entire WORLD while back here in the States we are at the mercy of idiots and the Anti-Christ.

      We're all damned.

    • 7 months ago
  • irie_ojo
    • 0
      irie_ojo  

    • it's been rain for at least 10 days here is costa rica. i think we had 7 days of non stop rain. today we rescued a sloth, that had been washed down river, on the beach. we were planning on bringing it to a refuge for sloths but sadly jack bauer (name we gave the sloth) passed away. so you can add him to the tally board of dead in costa.

    • 7 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • irie_ojo
    • 0
      irie_ojo  
    • JanforGore:

      we are fine. got to surf today... last year was a lot worse. a few towns around us (near rivers) have been flooded but this is almost a yearly occurrence. the local people are used to these floods. more often the landslide are more dangerous than the floods. last year was an exception.... we received a quarter of the years rain in 5 days. I had my zodiac (boat) out helping people get to higher ground. we were holding on to the roofs of homes. it is pretty much a part of life here.

    • 7 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • http://www.nation.co.ke/News/30000+hit+by+floods+in+Coast+region+/-/1056/1257224...

      Eight days of consecutive rain here as well.

      "At least 30,000 people have been affected by floods following heavy rains that have been pounding Coast Province for more than a week.

      Kenya Red Cross Society regional manager Jerald Bombe said Kwale, Kilifi and Mombasa counties were the worst-hit.

      He said more than 100 families have been made homeless in the three counties after their houses either collapsed, got flooded or swept away.

      Mr Bombe said Red Cross donated tarpaulins, blankets, utensils and mosquito nets to 60 displaced families Mombasa at the weekend.

      “Information gathered from our staff in the region indicates that there are 30,500 people affected by floods,” he said."

    • 7 months ago
  • artemis6
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/78181/more-death-feared-as-rain-pummels-central-ame...

      Civil Defense officials across Central America were on high alert Monday as heavy rain that has pounded the region for more than a week showed no sign of relenting.

      More than 80 people have been killed over the past week in mudslides and flooding across in the mountainous region, home to 42 million people. Rain-swollen rivers have destroyed bridges and damaged highways, while flooding has destroyed crops and damaged thousands of homes.

      The toll is expected to rise as reports from isolated villages begin to trickle in — and in the coming days officials fear more mudslides from rain-saturated soil, food shortages in faraway towns, and health problems due to water-borne diseases.

      Those killed include 32 in El Salvador, 29 in Guatemala, 13 in Honduras and eight in Nicaragua, according to local officials.

      “Climate change is not something that is coming in the future, we are already suffering its effects,” said Raul Artiga with the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD).

      Hard-hit El Salvador on Monday launched a worldwide appeal for humanitarian assistance due to the intense rain.

      In El Salvador, at least 10 bridges have collapsed and another 10 show serious damage, while 14 highways have serious damage, according to a preliminary report.

      Public Works Minister Gerson Martinez estimated the damages at “several million dollars.”

      El Salvador has experienced record rainfall of 1.2 meters (four feet) in one week, shattering the record set by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

      In Guatemala, Vice President Rafael Espada said that rivers were dangerously swollen. “We are doing what we can to provide aid for the victims,” he said.

      Honduran President Porfirio Lobo declared a state of emergency in the south of his country, while Nicaraguan kept a close eye on Lake Xolotlan, fearing it could flood into the capital Managua.

    • 7 months ago
  • coolplanet
    • 0
      coolplanet  
    • JanforGore:

      How many more extreme climate events around the world do you think it will take for America to wake up?
      When all the broken records of 2011 are all told the greenhouse effect will no longer be deniable.

    • 7 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      We had days & days of beautiful weather then suddenly rain & gloom comes in. The sky at night has turned an extreme color of royal blue I do not recall seeing before. I kinda figured something was happening somewhere.

      Hawaii was hit today 4.5, many aftershocks also.

      Well, tomorrow we'll have plenty of jobs & won't have to be sitting at home watching all this junk. Be normal again.

    • 7 months ago
  • JanforGore
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