Guatemala continued on Tuesday under the effects of the rains in almost the entire national territory after the passage of the storm Julia, which left damage and dozens of deaths in Central America.
Julia hit Nicaragua first with hurricane strength over the weekend, to later affect El Salvador and Guatemala as a storm, causing at least 27 victims in the region.
Guatemalan authorities adjusted the figures of the affected people on Tuesday and reported that 13 were confirmed dead, in addition to four missing and 11 injured.
Óscar Cossío, executive secretary of the National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction in Guatemala, explained at a press conference that the most affected departments are Izabal, Alta Verapaz and Huehuetenango, with floods that have left several communities in that area in the north of the country isolated.
He pointed out that in total some 547,000 people were affected and that of that number more than 2,000 were affected. The government declared a state of calamity for 30 days, which allows it to carry out acquisitions free of strict controls and limits constitutional rights such as freedom of action or locomotion.
In El Salvador, the storm left at least nine people dead, including five soldiers who died buried when the wall of a house collapsed where they sheltered from the rain in the municipality of Comasagua, where for a week more than 2,000 soldiers and some 500 police officers participate in a security fence to persecute gang members in the area. Another soldier was injured.
In Honduras, where the phenomenon did not make landfall, but caused rains and damage, left four people dead. In Nicaragua, the death of a man was also reported when a tree fell on him.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and turn on notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram