Huge mudslides, flooding and torrential rains from Hurricane Stan have killed at least 117 people in Central American and southern Mexico, rescue workers said today.
Relentless rain pounded mountain villages and urban shanty towns across the impoverished region, and hillsides collapsed under the weight of four days of downpours.
The death toll nearly doubled today when rivers burst their banks in southern Mexico, and emergency teams found another 42 people buried under several feet of mud in remote Guatemalan towns.
Unconfirmed reports said hundreds may have died there.
"I was like a worm sliding around in the mud," said Alexander Flores, whose home on the edge of San Salvador was buried under six feet (2 metres) of dirt and rocks.
"I just heard two shouts from my mother, saying "Alex, Alex', maybe for me to help her or her trying to save me," he said. His mother and five children died, including a new-born baby, he said.
Fifty people have now been killed in both El Salvador and Guatemala, including the latest deaths, and another 17 total in Mexico, Nicaragua and Honduras, authorities said.
Many of the victims in the worst-hit areas lived in flimsy, wooden and iron huts that were swallowed by landslides.
Swollen rivers washed away a major bridge and ripped apart houses and buildings when they burst their banks at the city of Tapachula, in Mexico's Chiapas state.
"There is flooding, in some communities mudslides, there is no access by road, no telephone communication," said Jordan Jimenez of Mexico's civil protection agency in Chiapas. "There are people missing, some in shelters."