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| Frantic Search for Survivors in Guatemala After Mudslide Kills 69 | |
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| GUATEMALA CITY — Dulce del Carmen Lavarenzo Pu had just returned from church when the ground shook and she heard a terrible noise. A wave of mud slid from the nearby mountainside and buried everything just 150 feet from her house. | GUATEMALA CITY — Dulce del Carmen Lavarenzo Pu had just returned from church when the ground shook and she heard a terrible noise. A wave of mud slid from the nearby mountainside and buried everything just 150 feet from her house. |
| “Everything went black, because the lights went out,” said Ms. Lavarenzo Pu, a 28-year-old homemaker, speaking of the mudslide that struck Thursday night in her neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala City. “Ash and dust were falling, so we left the house. You couldn’t see anything.” | “Everything went black, because the lights went out,” said Ms. Lavarenzo Pu, a 28-year-old homemaker, speaking of the mudslide that struck Thursday night in her neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala City. “Ash and dust were falling, so we left the house. You couldn’t see anything.” |
| The rain-sodden hillside about 300 feet high had collapsed onto her neighborhood, killing at least 69 people, including a cousin of Ms. Lavarenzo Pu. She burst into tears upon seeing the body of her cousin brought into the morgue on Friday. At least 36 other people have been reported injured. | |
| The number of dead was expected to rise with family members reporting hundreds of people missing. The number of missing could be as high as 600 based on at least 100 homes in the area of the slide, said Alejandro Maldonado, executive secretary of Conred, Guatemala’s emergency disaster agency. | The number of dead was expected to rise with family members reporting hundreds of people missing. The number of missing could be as high as 600 based on at least 100 homes in the area of the slide, said Alejandro Maldonado, executive secretary of Conred, Guatemala’s emergency disaster agency. |
| Search efforts resumed at dawn on Saturday. Julio Sánchez, spokesman for Guatemala’s volunteer firefighters, said that workers had recovered four more bodies in the early morning, raising the death toll to 30. | Search efforts resumed at dawn on Saturday. Julio Sánchez, spokesman for Guatemala’s volunteer firefighters, said that workers had recovered four more bodies in the early morning, raising the death toll to 30. |
| Hundreds of rescue workers used shovels, pickaxes, dogs and backhoes in a frantic bid to reach survivors on Friday, pulling one man alive from the rubble of his collapsed home more than 15 hours after the landslide hit. They had to call off the search late Friday until Saturday morning for workers’ security because they were getting tired and it was starting to rain, the authorities said. | Hundreds of rescue workers used shovels, pickaxes, dogs and backhoes in a frantic bid to reach survivors on Friday, pulling one man alive from the rubble of his collapsed home more than 15 hours after the landslide hit. They had to call off the search late Friday until Saturday morning for workers’ security because they were getting tired and it was starting to rain, the authorities said. |
| Mr. Sánchez said Friday that the dead, including two babies, were carried to an improvised morgue where weeping relatives identified the bodies of their loved ones. The dead included Quani Bonilla, 18, who played on the national squash team, he said. | Mr. Sánchez said Friday that the dead, including two babies, were carried to an improvised morgue where weeping relatives identified the bodies of their loved ones. The dead included Quani Bonilla, 18, who played on the national squash team, he said. |
| Also among the bodies, rescuers found a mother embracing her two girls, said Carlos Turcios, a doctor who saw them when he came to help the rescue. | Also among the bodies, rescuers found a mother embracing her two girls, said Carlos Turcios, a doctor who saw them when he came to help the rescue. |
| The hill that towers over Cambray, a neighborhood in the suburb of Santa Catarina Pinula, about 10 miles east of Guatemala City, partly collapsed onto a 200-foot stretch of the hamlet just before midnight, burying an estimated 68 homes. Raul Rodas, an assistant village mayor, said about 150 families had lived in the area where the mudslide occurred. | The hill that towers over Cambray, a neighborhood in the suburb of Santa Catarina Pinula, about 10 miles east of Guatemala City, partly collapsed onto a 200-foot stretch of the hamlet just before midnight, burying an estimated 68 homes. Raul Rodas, an assistant village mayor, said about 150 families had lived in the area where the mudslide occurred. |
| Some of the untouched homes in Cambray, which sits on the edge of a small river, were abandoned by their owners for fear of further mudslides. | Some of the untouched homes in Cambray, which sits on the edge of a small river, were abandoned by their owners for fear of further mudslides. |
| Early in the day, Marleni Pu, 25, stood at the edge of the mudslide, her face swollen with weeping. | Early in the day, Marleni Pu, 25, stood at the edge of the mudslide, her face swollen with weeping. |
| “My uncles, my cousins, my nieces and nephews are all there,” she said, looking across the field of debris where about two dozen relatives had lived. “Six houses where my relatives lived are all under the hillside now.” | “My uncles, my cousins, my nieces and nephews are all there,” she said, looking across the field of debris where about two dozen relatives had lived. “Six houses where my relatives lived are all under the hillside now.” |