Storm survivors in need of help

SANTIAGO ATITLAN, Guatemala – With food and water running out, governments in Central America and Mexico scrambled Friday to reach isolated areas devastated by a week of intense rain, with residents saying panic was starting to grow among survivors.

Mudslides and flooding exacerbated by Hurricane Stan killed 277 people across the region, with Guatemala bearing the brunt of the damage and deaths.

Officials pulled 67 bodies from a mountain of mud that buried several towns near Lake Atitlan, an area popular with tourists 100 miles west of the capital, Guatemala City, and expected to find many more despite search efforts marred by continued rains.

Increasing fears Friday was a strong earthquake that shuddered through Guatemala and El Salvador. The quake caused a rain-damaged highway bridge to collapse in Guatemala and sent thousands of frightened Salvadoran residents into the streets.

There were no immediate reports of injuries from the quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.8. Telephone service was cut off briefly in some areas of El Salvador, and Interior Minister Rene Figueroa urged residents to obey evacuation orders for high-risk areas.

The quake also forced officials to suspend their search for two coffee workers missing since Saturday when the Ilamatepec volcano erupted about 40 miles west of the capital, San Salvador.

The earthquake struck before residents had even begun to recover from five days of heavy rains, which included Hurricane Stan’s landfall on Tuesday in Mexico’s Gulf Coast state of Veracruz before it weakened into a tropical depression.

“We need food, clothing, medicine and help,” said Lucas Ajpus, a former firefighter coordinating rescue efforts in Santiago Atitlan, the Guatemalan city near landslides that hit four villages.