Race To Save Lives In C. America

It sounded like a volcanic eruption, survivors said. But it was actually a thundering river of mud, rock and uprooted trees that poured down a volcano towering over this Mayan community in western Guatemala, engulfing everything in its path.

Firefighters and volunteers were using hoes, pickaxes, machetes and their bare hands to tear into a hulking mass of mud more than two miles long, pulling out bodies large and small, young and old.

The landslide that buried several communities near the popular tourist destination of Lake Atitlan was believed to be the worst single disaster in several days of flooding that killed at least 277 people in southern Mexico and Central America.

Heavy rains that were already battering southern Mexico last week were exacerbated by Hurricane Stan, which came ashore along that country's Gulf Coast early Tuesday and moved over the states of Veracruz, Chiapas and Oaxaca before dissipating.

Rescuers with emergency supplies of food and water can't reach thousands of people in mountainous regions of Mexico's Chiapas state cut off by flooding and mudslides, officials said Friday.

"There're at least 300,000 people in the region who are not receiving any kind of help," said Chiapas Gov. Pablo Salazar Mendiguchia. He said floods and mudslides had affected at least 1 million residents of his state.

The official death toll in Guatemala stood at 177, but Oscar Sanchez, a spokesman for volunteer fire fighters nationwide said that 117 were confirmed dead in communities around Lake Atitlan and that the number killed all around the country had climbed to 287.

Benedicto Giron, a spokesman for the National Agency for Disaster Reduction, said of the mudslide in the Atitlan area "if what the villagers say is true, and there are 200 or 300 people buried, we could rise to 400 deaths."

Rafael Estrada, 63, was working as a custodian on the second floor of a school in Panabaj, one of eight largely Mayan towns that ring the lake, when the mudslide began. Many of the poorest communities are carved into coffee-growing regions on the sides of steep volcanoes.

"There was a noise that would scare anyone, a roar," said Estrada, who lost his sister, two nephews and at least two other relatives. "I thought the volcano had erupted. I thought 'it's already taken my family' and I could only wait for it to take me too."

In a flash, the ground floor of the school was covered almost to the roof in mud.

"There was nothing left," Estrada said, adding that the town around him had been swallowed to the roofs of houses by mud.

The tragedy set in motion a fierce struggle by Mayan communities to locate the bodies of loved ones in line with ancient traditions that demand proper burial.

Ramon Noj, a 31 year old farmer, spent Friday digging for his niece, 4-year-old Ana Castro.

"We can't allow her to remain here," he said in halting Spanish. "No one must be left behind. Everyone should be together in the cemetery."

Domingo Ramirez, 31, was among a small army of volunteers who grabbed poles, picks or anything else they could get their hands on and joined the search.

"These are our brothers, our friends," he said. "And they're dead."

In all, more than 270 Guatemalan communities have been affected by the floods and landslides and at least 30,000 people have evacuated to shelters.

In neighboring El Salvador, 67 people were killed and more than 62,000 had been evacuated because of flooding and landslides.

"If they don't come and give us aid, we are going to die with our children in the middle of all this water," said Maria Elena Crotez, 44, who was waiting in line for donated bread. Crotez lost her home after a river 45 miles outside San Salvador, the capital, overflowed, washing away everything in the area.

Mexican President Vicente Fox traveled to Chiapas, on his country's border with Guatemala, where officials raised the death toll to 10 late Friday.

"It's hard, it's so hard," Fox said in a live television interview from the city of Tapachula, where the power was still out. "I can understand why the people are crying. Why they yell for help."

The rains began to subside Friday, allowing water from swollen rivers that engulfed towns to subside some. Dazed residents returned to homes and businesses that were mostly underwater or destroyed completely.

Officials cautioned that weather patterns were likely to bring new rain to southern Mexico and Central America this weekend.

Shelters in Tapachula, a city of 400,000 on the border with Guatemala, and throughout Chiapas were packed with families who begged officials for food, water and clothing. Many were forced to sleep on the floor of schools and government buildings.

Fox planned to spend Saturday touring devastated areas in Chiapas and Oaxaca, where officials said three people were killed. Six people died in Veracruz, which took a direct hit from Hurricane Stan.

The U.S. Embassy was sending $100,000 worth of food, and Salazar said 50 tons of food and other aid have been donated by private businesses.

"It's devastating. Much of the city is gone. There's hardly any food left. People are desperate," said Maripaz Herrera, the manager of the Hotel Kamico in Tapachula.