The stench of death hangs over the western Guatemalan community of Panajab, which refuses to abandon hope.
Hundreds of local Mayan peasants armed with hoes, picks and shovels vowed to make another attempt on Sunday to find the remains of their loved ones buried alive under tonnes of mud.
On Saturday, Tropical Storm Stan triggered a mudslide that buried Panajab and neighbouring Tzanchaj, located 180km west of the capital, and left 1 400 people missing and feared dead.
Through rain, fog, and the threat of new mudslides, the searchers are helped by neighbours and volunteer firefighters.
”I don’t believe there are survivors. Already 36 hours have passed. According to estimates we have, 1 400 people were trapped there,” Mario Cruz, a firefighters’ spokesperson, said.
The bodies are likely buried under tonnes of mud in a four-square-kilometre area at the foot of the San Lucas volcano, once home to about 70 dwellings, Cruz believes.
”Others may have been swept into the Lake Atitlan, about 1km from here,” he said. ”Bodies might be floating in the lake tomorrow.”
Stan slammed the region on Tuesday as a hurricane before being downgraded to a tropical storm. It unleashed relentless rains from October 1 in Guatemala, where at least 508 people have been confirmed dead.
Of those, 208 perished in Panajab and Tzanchaj alone, Guatemalan President Oscar Berger said.
Damian Gonzales, a taxi driver, recalled how the area was covered by the mudslide early on Wednesday.
”We were all sleeping,” Gonzales said. ”I don’t think many escaped.”
Cruz said the search-and-rescue effort will last several days.
”We don’t have the machines here, because roads collapsed,” Cruz said. ”It’s hard to recover bodies with just a shovel and a pick.”
Hundreds of people dug for bodies all day on Saturday. By midday, they had found 71, most of them children.
The bodies were immediately placed in makeshift coffins and put in a communal grave in a nearby cemetery, without religious service.
Many of the workers shot angry looks when a firefighter blew a whistle to ask them to leave the area.
”We blow the whistle when the rain gets bad and fog gets thicker, because we fear another mudslide,” Cruz said. ”This is difficult due to the bad weather; we’re working in pure mud. I don’t know how many days we’ll be doing this.”
Scarcity of food, potable water and fuel in the devastated region could cut short the search for bodies. Aid from the Guatemalan government had yet to appear.
At a private beach in Santiago Atitlan, the largest town on the lake, local officials and soldiers loaded food, water and blankets donated by private citizens into motor boats and discussed how best to distribute it to 12 communities at the foot of the volcano.
But most of the donations could stay on the beach due to a shortage of fuel.
”Probably this is the only day we’ll be able to deliver the aid from good-hearted Guatemalans, because we’re almost out of fuel,” one of the crew members said. The nearest place to buy more is 40km away, he said.
A doctor who visited the region on Saturday offered a bleak description of the situation: ”It’s just blood and tears, blood and tears.” — AFP
