Former Hurricane Julia has dissipated, continuing to flood Guatemala and El Salvador with torrential rains on Monday after it reappeared in the Pacific Ocean after Nicaragua hit.
At least 19 other people were reported to have died as a direct or indirect result of the storm.
Guatemala’s crisis prevention firm said five other people died after a hill collapsed on their home in Alta Verapaz province, burying them.
The Salvadoran government said five Salvadoran army infantrymen were killed after a wall collapsed in a space where they had taken refuge in the town of Comasagua, where shipments of police and infantrymen conducted anti-gang raids. Another soldier was wounded.
Two other people died in the eastern city of Guatajiagua after heavy rains caused a wall to collapse in their home. Another man in El Salvador died when he was swept away by a current, and another died when a tree fell on him.
Rivers burst their banks and El Salvador declared a state of emergency and opened 80 typhoon shelters.
In neighboring Honduras, a 22-year-old woguy died when swept away by currents, and 3 other people died when his boat flooded or capsized in northern Honduras. A man in Nicaragua died from a falling tree.
Julia hit Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast early Sunday as a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph and survived passing through the country’s mountainous terrain, entering the Pacific Ocean as a tropical storm.
By Monday, Julia had moved inland over Guatemala and its winds had dropped to 30 mph.
The U. S. National Hurricane Center The U. S. Department of Health said Julia was centered about 80 miles west-northwest of Guatemala City and moved west-northwest at 15 mph.
The center said flooding and landslides were imaginable in Central America and southern Mexico until Tuesday, and the typhoon was expected to bring up to 15 inches of rain in remote areas.
In Guatemala, two more people were reported missing and two were hospitalized, and some 1,300 more people were forced to flee their homes due to flooding and emerging rivers.
Julia was expected to burn later Monday as it passed off the Guatemalan coast.
Colombia’s national crisis control firm reported Sunday that Julia blew off the roofs of several houses and knocked down trees as she passed through Nicaragua’s San Andres island. There were no immediate reports of deaths.
In Nicaragua, Vice President Rosario Murillo told TN8 tv that another 9,500 people were evacuated to shelters.
Heavy rains and evacuations were reported in Panama, Honduras and Costa Rica, where some roads were closed due to downpours.
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