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First a volcano, then a tropical storm! Those unsaved Guatemalans must've done something awful to anger our sweet merciful Lord so much. I guess he isn't quite as mad at the people of Ecuador, since he only smited them a with a volcano.
Deadly storm buries children in Guatemala
Updated 10 hours 37 minutes ago The season's first tropical storm, named Agatha, has killed 12 people in Guatemala.Drenching rain, mudslides and floods also left 11 people missing and forced 3,000 to flee their homes.
The fatalities included four children who were buried alive when a mudslide crushed their home in San Jose Pinula, 17 kilometres east of the capital, the National Disaster Agency said.
Four other people were also killed by a mudslide inside their home on Saturday (local time) as the storm front's outer fringes lashed western Guatemala with rainfall which the US National Weather Service has estimated could total as much as 50-75 centimetres in some areas.
Volcanoes erupt in Guatemala, Ecuador
By Juan Carlos Llorca, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS GUATEMALA CITY -
Explosive eruptions shook two huge volcanos in Central and South America on Friday, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes and disrupting air traffic as ash drifted over major cities.
Guatemala's Pacaya volcano started erupting lava and rocks Thursday afternoon, blanketing the country's capital with ash and forcing the closure of the international airport. A television reporter was killed by a shower of burning rocks when he got too close to the volcano, about 15 miles (25 kilometres) south of Guatemala City.
In the village of Calderas, close to the eruption, Brenda Castaneda said she and her family hid under beds and tables as marble-sized rocks thundered down on her home.
"We thought we wouldn't survive. Our houses crumbled and we've lost everything," Castaneda said while waiting for rescue teams to take them to a shelter at a nearby school.
Meanwhile, strong explosions rocked Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano, prompting evacuations of hundreds of people from nearby villages.
Ecuador's National Geophysics Institute said hot volcanic material blasted down the slopes and ash plumes soared 6 miles (10 kilometres) above a crater that is already 16,479 feet (5,023 metres) above sea level.
Winds blew the ash over the country's most populous city, Guayaquil, and led aviation officials to halt flights out of the Pacific port and from Quito to Lima, Peru.
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