Tropical Storm Kills 83 in Central America

Last Updated 9:28 p.m. EDT

Central American authorities say at least 83 people have been killed in flooding and landslides associated with the region's first tropical storm of the year.

Guatemala's disaster relief spokesman says 73 people have been killed as a result of torrential rains brought by Agatha, which slammed into the region as a tropical storm before dissipating.

Salvadoran President Maruricio Funes says nine people are dead in his country, and Honduras has reported one fatality.

Agatha was dissipating Sunday over the mountains of western Guatemala a day after it made landfall near the nation's border with Mexico with winds up to 45 mph.

Torrential rains from Tropical Storm Agatha brought deadly flooding and mudslides in Guatemala and Honduras.

Thousands of people are in shelters.

The deaths include eight people killed by landslides in the Guatemala City area, including four children killed by a mudslide in the town of Santa Catarina Pinula, about six miles outside the capital.

In the department of Quetzaltenango, 125 miles west of Guatemala City, a boulder loosened by rains crushed a house, killing two children and two adults.

In Honduras, emergency officials say flooding and landslides have destroyed 45 homes, and one man was crushed to death when a wall collapsed.

Agatha formed as a tropical storm early Saturday in the East Pacific and moved over land in the evening along the Guatemala-Mexico border, said the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm is no longer even a tropical depression, but forecasters say it could still dump as much as 20 inches of rain over southeastern Mexico, Guatemala and parts of El Salvador.

Before the rains, Guatemala already was contending with heavy eruptions from its Pacaya volcano that have blanketed the capital in ash and destroyed 800 homes. Officials expressed concerns that Agatha's rains could exacerbate the damages.

The Pacaya volcano, which is just south of the capital, started spewing lava and rocks Thursday afternoon, forcing the closure of Guatemala City's international airport. A TV reporter was killed by a shower of burning rocks.

Airport official Felipe Castaneda told reporters Saturday that the airport would be closed for the next five days while ash is removed.

"The work to remove the ash was going forward, but the rain has complicated it," Castaneda said.

In El Salvador, authorities began evacuating hundreds of families in areas at risk for landslides and flooding, suspending fishing and tourism along the Pacific coast.

Five days of steady rainfall has already swollen a major river flowing through the capital San Salvador.