Hope Fades for Finding Survivors of Guatemala Mudslide

Hope faded Sunday for finding any survivors of a mudslide that killed at least 87 people as the smell of rotting bodies spread across the enormous mound of earth and rescuers reported that the buried dwellings they reached were filled with water, suggesting anyone trapped inside would have drowned.

Rescue workers help a woman after she identified two family members as their bodies are retrieved from the site of a mudslide in Cambray, a neighborhood in the suburb of Santa Catarina Pinula, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015. AP Photo/Luis Soto

SANTA CATARINA PINULA, Guatemala — Hope faded Sunday for finding any survivors of a mudslide that killed at least 87 people as the smell of rotting bodies spread across the enormous mound of earth and rescuers reported that the buried dwellings they reached were filled with water, suggesting anyone trapped inside would have drowned.

Authorities said about 300 people may still be missing. But they left open the possibility that many of them had simply fled and taken refuge with relatives without contacting authorities, or that they were not in the 125 buried homes when the mudslide struck.

Men wait to help with the search for survivors after a mudslide in Cambray, a neighborhood in the suburb of Santa Catarina Pinula, on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015. AP Photo/Luis Soto