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20 Killed in Guatemala Mudslides

   VOA News 05 September 2010
   People  stand  in front of a bus partially covered by a landslide, due
   to  heavy  rains,  on  the Pan-American highway at Tecpan, Guatemala 4
   Sept, 2010.

Photo: AP

   People  stand  in front of a bus partially covered by a landslide, due
   to  heavy  rains,  on  the Pan-American highway at Tecpan, Guatemala 4
   Sept, 2010.

   Torrential  rains  in  Guatemala  have triggered landslides across the
   country, killing at least 20 people.
   Authorities  say  one  mudslide  engulfed  a bus on the Inter-American
   Highway  Saturday, killing at least a dozen passengers and injuring 20
   others.   Officials  say  the bus was about 80 kilometers outside the
   capital, Guatemala City.
   Elsewhere  in  Guatemala,  officials  say a mudslide buried a house in
   western  Quetzaltenango province, killing four people.  Officials say
   at  least  four  others  were  killed in separate incidents across the
   country.
   Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has declared a national emergency in
   the  wake  of  the  flooding  and landslides.  He said weeks of heavy
   rains have caused as much as $500 million in damage.
   Tropical  weather  systems  in both the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico
   have left hillsides throughout Guatemala and southern Mexico saturated
   with  water.   Meteorologists  have forecast more rain throughout the
   region Sunday.
   Heavy  flooding  in  the  Mexican  Gulf  state  of  Tabasco has forced
   thousands  of  people  from  their homes.  Authorities in neighboring
   Chiapas  and  Oaxaca  states, which border Guatemala, and the state of
   Veracruz have also reported serious flooding.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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