NAHUALA, Guatemala — Torrential rains from a tropical depression caused landslides that have killed at least 38 people in Guatemala, some of them rescuers trying to save people already buried under a wall of mud.
In the village of Nahuala, about 200 rescue workers suspended the search for bodies Sunday afternoon after heavy rain fell in the area, Civil Protection spokesman David de Leon said.
Two slides in the same spot in Nahuala killed at least 20 along a highway leading northwest of the capital toward Mexico. Another slide closer to Guatemala City killed at least 12.
“We will return when the rain ceases,” De Leon said. “It is difficult and dangerous to continue with the search.”
Suagustino Pascual Tuy, a Nahuala police officer, said he and several others rushed to the highway with picks and shovels after hearing radio reports of the fallen earth, which buried two pickup trucks and a bus.
Pascual Tuy said the crowds were able to rescue several people including his nephew, who was driving one of the pickups.
Pascual Tuy said people were still digging through the mud when the mountain above them began crackling. He shouted a warning, but moments later the second slide buried a number of rescuers. Pascual Tuy ran for his life and the slide only caught his legs.
“The mountain was making noise like an earthquake, but people wouldn’t leave,” he said. “They were being stubborn and didn’t get out.”
A few hours earlier, a landslide on the same highway partially buried a bus, killing 12 people.
Communications Minister Guillermo Castillo said there have been 15 landslides in different spots along the highway in the last 48 hours.
Pascual Tuy said there have been several landslides along the highway in the last year, and authorities knew of the danger.
“Last year there was a landslide there, 15 days ago there was a landslide,” he said. “But now a big one came.”
Heavy rains from Tropical Depression 11-E have pelted Guatemala for days, unleashing mudslides in several areas, cutting highways and prompting officials to evacuate thousands of people.
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