Mudslide
near Guatemala City kills 17
(Vatican
Radio) More than 130 people are confirmed dead and more than 300 are
missing in the town of Cambray near to Guatemala City, following a massive
mudslide. After 4 days, the nature of the rescue efforts are changing.
Rescuers
and sniffer dogs have been been working round the clock shifts since
the disaster on Thursday, after a looming 100 meters hillside
saturated by constant heavy rains, collapsed, engulfing more than 100 homes.
Some
houses are buried as deep as 15 metres under the cloying mud and rubble. Thirty
people have been rescued, but no one else has been recovered from the disaster
area over the weekend.
Now
hands and hoes which have been carefully and painstakingly sifting, are being
replaced by bulldozers and heavy machinery with almost no hope of
finding any further survivors under the mudslide which covers 1.7
hectares.
Almost
2,000 emergency service workers, wearing masks to try and hold back the
increasing stench of death, are determined to carry on searching.
Shrill blown whistles peroiodically demend absolute silence, so even very faint
noises can be heard. But as the hours transform into days, nothing is
forthcoming.
An
investigation has already been launched into this ghastly tragedy, which has
claimed many lives, with the death toll certain to rise still further.
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