Death toll in El Salvador rises to 19 as heavy rains continue

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Torrential rains in El Salvador left six more people dead Friday, as two girls and four adults were buried in their homes. Wall collapses and landslides on the outskirts of the capital left 19 dead.

Two Weather systems — one along the Pacific coast of Guatemala and the other in the Gulf of Mexico, which developed Tropical Storm Alberto – have brought heavy rains to southern Mexico and Central America.

El Salvador’s civil protection authorities issued a red alert and the country’s parliament declared a national state of emergency for 15 days due to the heavy rains.

The deaths of the two girls, aged five and seven, were confirmed by the country’s rescue squad and civil defence, who warned residents of the danger of landslides as the accumulation of water could cause walls to collapse.

According to the official report, a wall collapsed on the girls’ house and after several hours of work, their lifeless bodies were recovered. The minors’ parents were recovered alive and taken to a local hospital.

Civil defense also reported four more deaths in the rural southern outskirts of San Salvador.

Two elderly people in the Panchimalco district and two others in the Planes de Renderos area died when the walls of their homes collapsed.

Civil Protection Director Luis Alonso Amaya said: “We have already resolved just over 1,500 incidents. These include 19 deaths, 706 fallen trees and 521 temporarily blocked roads. Two of these trees caused the death of three people.”

The Observatory of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) reported that persistent rains will continue throughout the country.

Due to low pressure conditions, a second tropical depression could form behind Alberto in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico this weekend. This system will continue to bring abundant moisture from the Pacific and keep the storm over El Salvador.

Salvadoran authorities have prepared 150 shelters nationwide for over 6,000 people, 82 of which are active and provide shelter to 2,582 people, including 1,212 minors.