Rescuers continue hunt for mudslide survivors

Rescuers dug through rock and debris today in hope of finding dozens of people missing in a mudslide, part of a wave of floods that killed at least 124 people in El Salvador.

Days of heavy rains loosened mud and boulders that rolled down the slopes of the Chichontepec volcano before dawn yesterday, burying homes and cars in Verapaz, a town of about 3,000 people 30 miles outside the capital, San Salvador.

Soldiers, emergency workers and relatives resumed a search for the missing at daybreak today and military helicopters flew in food for the searchers.

Survivor Cruz Ayala described the slide as “something black, like a huge wave, a huge noise, and I heard screams of people asking for help.”

She fled and climbed the roof of a neighbour’s house without knowing if her 71-year-old mother and teenage nieces escaped.

She found her mother and one of the girls, but the other, a 14-year-old, remains missing.

Amid a persistent drizzle, rescuers dug frantically for survivors with shovels and even bare hands. But the search was made difficult by collapsed walls, boulders and downed power lines that blocked heavy machinery.

A small church became an impromptu funeral home, with relatives waiting outside under the rain for loved ones to be prepared for burial.

President Mauricio Funes declared a national emergency and called the damages incalculable.

“The images that we have seen today are of a devastated country,” he said.

The Salvadoran Civil Protection agency raised the death toll to 124 , with another 60 people missing. They were concentrated in San Salvador and San Vicente province, where Verapaz is located.

Matias Mendoza, 26, was at home in Verapaz with his wife, Claudia, and their one-year-old son, Franklin, when the earth began moving.

“It was about two in the morning when the rain started coming down harder, and the earth started shaking,” he said. “I warned my wife and grabbed my son, and all of a sudden we heard a sound. The next thing I knew I was lying among parts of the walls of my house.

“A few minutes later, I found my wife and my son in the middle of the rubble, and, thank God, we’re alive,” said Mr Mendoza.

Almost 7,000 people saw their homes damaged by landslides or cut off by floods following three days of downpours from the low-pressure system.

San Vicente governor Manuel Castellanos said workers were struggling to clear roads, and power and water service had been knocked out. At least 300 houses were flooded when a river in Verapaz overflowed its banks.