Mexico City/San Salvador, El Salvador - More than 100 people were killed as heavy rains set off mudslides and sent rivers over their banks in El Salvador, rescue workers said Sunday. The rainfall, which came amid a cold front and the remainders of Hurricane Ida, caused havoc in other parts of the region, including southern Mexico, where more than 200,000 people were affected.
The Salvadoran daily El Diario de Hoy reported late Sunday that 124 people had been killed.
More than 60 people died in the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador, with another 60 missing late Sunday.
In the town of San Vicente and the surrounding area around the base of the Chinchontepec volcano, more than 40 residents perished in mudslides, Salvadoran Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said. One mudslide covered a length of eight kilometres, damaging several towns, he said.
President Mauricio Funes declared a state of emergency and promised rapid financial aid to those affected, El Diario de Hoy reported.
More than 300 houses were destroyed in San Vicente, and streets and bridges in the region had collapsed.
Some parts of the region were cut off by flooding.
The hurricane grew to a category 2 storm Sunday. It slid along Mexico's Caribbean coast and past the resort city of Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula, where local officials reported little damage late Sunday.
Western Cuba also reported minimal impact from the storm.
Meteorologists at the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami forecast that Ida would continue into the Gulf of Mexico with landfall looming along the US Gulf Coast.
