Hundreds feared dead in Guatemala landslide, as some families relieved just to find bodies

Hopes have faded of finding any remaining survivors of a massive landslide that swallowed part of a Guatemalan town killing more than 100 people, with hundreds more still missing. Loosened by rain, tons of earth, rock and trees cascaded onto a neighborhood in Santa Catarina Pinula, on the southeast flank of Guatemala City, crushing houses and trapping residents who had gone home for the night. Despair for lost family members is so deep that some relatives feel lucky simply to have found the bodies of their loved ones.

I feel lucky because other families can’t even cry over their dead.

Alejandro Lopez, a 45-year-old taxi driver, who recovered the bodies of two daughters and a grandson.

The El Cambray II neighbourhood battered by the landslide lies at the bottom of a deep ravine ringed by trees. Authorities had flagged risks of flooding and landslides in the area, saying in a report last year that construction permits should never have been granted for the neighbourhood. Doctors at a shelter in Santa Catarina Pinula worried more about the immediate fallout for survivors of the disaster, describing widespread cases of emotional trauma.

Mourning is very difficult without a corpse.

Elser Oronez, 41, a senior physician at a shelter in Santa Catarina Pinula.

World Guatemala