View of a site where at least 20 people were buried by a landslide in the Nahuala municipality, Solola, west of Guatemala City, on September 5, 2010. (Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images )

World

Torrential Rain and Mudslides Kill 36 in Guatemala

By Kremena Krumova

September 6, 2010 Updated: October 1, 2015

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Heavy rains and floods caused the death of at least 36 people in Guatemala. The death toll is expected to reach 100, according to national emergency services.

Another 40 people were declared missing and 30 people injured after Guatemala experienced severe flooding over the weekend.

The floods caused the closure of the Inter-American Highway washing away entire sections of the road, burying a bus underwater and knocking several other vehicles off the road.

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom announced a state of emergency.

The natural disaster affected nearly 42,000 people, damaging thousands of homes, infrastructure, and fields of crops.

Ten thousand Guatemalans have been evacuated, 7,000 of whom have been sheltered in temporary facilities.

This is the second natural disaster in the country this year after the tropical storm Agatha killed 150 people in May.