▲ Guatemalan road cut by landslide
Hurricane Eta hits Guatemala in Central America, with landslides and floods hitting snowballs.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Jammatei said at a press conference on the 6th local time that "there are about 150 dead and missing (due to eta)," presuming that the statistics are unofficial.
Particularly damaging is Keja, the mountainous village of Verapas in San Cristobal, north of the capital Guatemala City.
President Jammatei said 150 houses were buried here alone, and it is estimated that more than 100 people were killed. He said the army is currently approaching the village to rescue.
There is a possibility of further landslides as there is still strong rain all over Guatemala, and there are many places where it is difficult to access rescue teams due to cuts in the roads, which is a concern that human damage will continue to increase.
Atlantic Hurricane Eta is the most powerful hurricane to hit Central America in recent years.
After landing in Nicaragua on the 3rd with 4th rank, the second highest among hurricane ratings, heavy rain has sprinkled not only in Nicaragua, but also throughout Central America, including Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama.
After landing, the power gradually weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm and then to a tropical cyclone, but a lot of sudden rains caused floods and landslides everywhere.
In addition to Guatemala, about 10 people died in Honduras, and deaths from landslides in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama were also reported.
There have also been many displaced people across Central America.
An official from the UNICEF Honduras branch said it was "the worst storm in decades," and estimated that 1.5 million Honduras children were affected, Reuters reported.
According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), the current tropical cyclone, Eta, is escaping into the Caribbean and moving towards Cuba and Florida, USA.
(Photo = AP, Yonhap News)