28 People Die As Julia Empties Rain On Central America

On Monday, after battering Nicaragua again in the Pacific, dissipated Hurricane Julia continued to dump heavy rainfall on Guatemala and El Salvador.

The storm was responsible for the deaths of at least 28 individuals.

The Guatemalan government’s office for disaster mitigation reported that five individuals had perished when a slope in Alta Verapaz region crashed on their home. In addition, nine individuals lost their lives in the province of Huehuetenango, which is located close to Mexico. Among them was a soldier who was murdered while trying to save others.

Five Salvadoran troops were killed when the wall they were hiding behind fell in the town of Comasagua, where hundreds of police and soldiers were engaged in anti-gang operations, according to local authorities. Another one of the soldiers was hurt.

The village of Guatajiagua, located in eastern El Salvador, also lost two residents when a wall of their house collapsed due to the severe rainfall. Both a guy who was carried away by a flood and another who was killed when a tree crashed on them in El Salvador are considered drowning deaths.

El Salvador has created 80 storm shelters due to the overflowing rivers.

A 22-year-old woman drowned in neighboring Honduras when she was carried away by currents, while three others lost their lives when the boat they were traveling in either bogged down or crashed in the country’s northern region. A guy was killed by a falling tree in Nicaragua.

Early Sunday morning, Hurricane Julia slammed into Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph). After making it across Nicaragua’s hilly terrain, Julia entered the Pacific as a tropical storm later that day.

On Monday, Julia crossed inland over Guatemala, reducing winds to 30 mph (45 kph).

According to the US National Hurricane Center, Julia was situated around 80 miles (125 km) west-northwest of Guatemala City and was heading west-northwest at 15 mph (24 kph).

The storm is projected to dump as much as 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain to certain regions in Central America and southern Mexico through Tuesday, according to the center.

As a result of the floods and rising streams in Guatemala, two individuals are still missing, two more are in the hospital, and around 1,300 others have been forced to evacuate their houses.

As Julia moves down the coast of Guatemala on Monday, it is predicted to weaken and eventually evaporate.

On Sunday, the Colombian national disaster service reported that when Julia ripped through San Andres Island east of Nicaragua, it blew the roofs off numerous homes and toppled down trees. No deaths were reported right away.

Vice President Rosario Murillo said to TN8 television that 9,500 people had been relocated to safe areas in Nicaragua.

Some roadways were blocked in Panama, Honduras, and Costa Rica because of the heavy rains, and evacuations were reported there as well.