Death toll rises as tropical storm lashes Americas

The death toll in Central America from landslides and flooding triggered by the year's first tropical storm surged to 99 as authorities struggled to clear roads of debris and reach cut-off communities.

Torrential rains that have pounded an area stretching from southern Mexico nearly to Nicaragua eased as rivers continued to rise and word filtered out from isolated areas of more deaths in landslides.

By early today, 112,000 people in Guatemala had been evacuated, many to shelters.

In Guatemala, 73 people were killed as rains unleashed lethal landslides across the country, according to government disaster relief spokesman David de Leon.

Government disaster relief spokesman David de Leon said 82 people were killed in the poor Central American country as rains unleashed lethal landslides across the country. Another 53 people were reported missing.

Tropical Storm Agatha made landfall on Saturday near the nation's border with Mexico as a tropical storm with winds up to 45mph and was dissipating rapidly over the mountains of western Guatemala.

In El Salvador, President Mauricio Funes warned that the danger had not yet passed and reported nine deaths.

"Although the storm appears to be diminishing in intensity, the situation across the country remains critical," he said.

In Honduras, eight deaths were linked to the weather.

The US National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida, warned that remnants of the storm were expected to deliver 10 to 20 inches of rain over south-eastern Mexico, Guatemala and parts of El Salvador.

Nervous residents still remember Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which parked over Central America for days, causing flooding and mudslides that killed nearly 11,000 people and left more than 8,000 missing.

In Guatemala, 13 people died in one landslide that tore through the community of San Antonio Palopo on the steep banks of Lake Atitlan, a popular tourist attraction 40 miles east of Guatemala City.

Guatemalan president Alvaro Colom said 4.3ins of rain had fallen in Guatemala City's valley in one 12-hours period.

The rains unleashed chaos in the department of Quetzaltenango, 125 miles west of Guatemala City, where a boulder loosened by rains crushed a house, killing four people including two children.

Four children were killed when rain-soaked earth gave way in the town of Santa Catarina Pinula, about six miles outside the capital.

Cesar George of Guatemala's meteorological institute said the coastal community of Champerico had received 11.8 inches of rain in 30 hours.

Rainfall from the Guatemalan interior also flooded rivers coursing away from the storm towards the Atlantic. The Motagua River flooded 19 communities near Guatemala's north-eastern border with Honduras.

In El Salvador, there were at least 140 landslides throughout the country.

Civil defense chiefs said the Acelhuate River that passes through the capital, San Salvador, had risen to dangerous levels and was threatening to overflow into city streets.

Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras all declared emergencies designed to increase immediate government aid and resources.

Guatemala City's La Aurora airport remained closed Sunday because of heavy ash that fell from last week's eruptions of Pacaya volcano. But volcanic activity had tapered off yesterday, allowing helicopters and small planes to deliver aid to communities still unreachable on washed out roads.

Flooding and slides destroyed 505 homes in the Honduras and prompted authorities to evacuate 2,250 people.