145 Killed in Central America Storm

Guatemala sinkhole swallows 3-story building
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 1, 2010 1:22 AM CDT
Updated Jun 1, 2010 6:41 AM CDT
145 Killed in Central America Storm
Residents prepare to take down their tin roof and wood home as the Choluteca river overflows its banks due to heavy rains in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.   (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio)

The first tropical storm of the season has claimed 145 lives and officials fear many more people have been buried by landslides in remote parts of Central America. In Guatemala, the hardest-hit country, at least 120 people were killed by tropical storm Agatha and its aftermath, including a man who died when a huge sinkhole swallowed a three-story building in Guatemala City.

Thousands of people in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras have been made homeless by the storm. Rescuers are still struggling to reach remote communities. "There are a lot of dead people. The roads are blocked, the shelters are overflowing," a provincial governor told AP. "We need water, food, clothes, blankets—but above all, money." (More Central America stories.)

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