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Six Killed As Heavy Rains Pound Central America

Dozens to hundreds die each year in Central America as the rainy season leaves extensive damage to countries' infrastructure.


A woman evacuated due to heavy rains rests in a shelter set up by the municipal mayor’s office in San Salvador on June 17, 2024. – Six people have died in El Salvador and Guatemala due to the heavy rains that have hit Central America, according to authorities from both countries on June 17, 2024, who also reported hundreds of people affected by floods and landslides. (Photo by Marvin RECINOS / AFP)

 

Six people have died in El Salvador and Guatemala amid heavy rains soaking Central America since the weekend, authorities from the two countries said.

In El Salvador, the hardest hit country so far, three people died Monday in a landslide triggered by floods in the western district of Tacuba, in the department of Ahuachapan, police reported on the social network X.

Those deaths follow a previous fatality recorded on Sunday after a tree and a pole fell on a car that was traveling on a highway in the capital.

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That same day, at night, Congress approved a state of emergency to facilitate the mobilization of resources.

Rains have been slamming both countries since Saturday.

In Guatemala, a 59-year-old woman and a 68-year-old man died on Sunday in the village of Chacaya, in the western Sacapulas municipality, when they were buried by a collapsed wall, authorities said.

Dozens to hundreds die each year in Central America as the rainy season leaves extensive damage to countries’ infrastructure.

AFP