Guernsey Press

Few victims of Guatemalan landslide found

The search for more than 100 victims has been hampered by perilous conditions and the remoteness of the scene.

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Rescuers have recovered only a handful out of more than 100 people believed to be buried in the central Guatemalan community of Queja, days after a landslide buried half the town.

The location is so remote and the conditions so perilous that Queja could become the latest in a string of Guatemalan disaster sites that become the final resting places of their victims.

On Monday, the Guatemalan government said a total of 44 deaths had been confirmed and 99 people were still missing in floods and landslides across the country.

Guatemala Tropical Weather
A member of a search and rescue team scans the scene at Queja (Esteban Biba/Pool Photo/AP)

Eta’s torrential rains wrought their worst damage early last Thursday afternoon as many residents in Queja, a farming town of about 1,200 Poqomchi Mayas, ate lunch.

The mountainside above them gave way, sweeping wooden and tin-roofed homes down a mountainside and burying them under many feet of orange mud and debris.

Guatemala Tropical Weather
A rescue dog and his handler search for survivors (Esteban Biba/Pool/AP)

It took a day just for rescuers to reach the scene because other landslides blocked highways. Supplies for survivors had to be flown in by helicopter.

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