Landslide kills Guatemalan family after heavy rains
GUATEMALA CITY, July 20 (Reuters) - A mudslide killed a Guatemalan family of 12 on Sunday, burying their house under tonnes of mud and rock, said local emergency workers.
The bodies of a couple and their 10 children were dug out by neighbors in the tiny hamlet of El Campanario near Guatemala's Caribbean coast, after heavy rains pummeled the region for several days.
Rescue workers took hours to reach the town, where most homes are built of flimsy wood and metal siding, since several landslides blocked the only access road, said Hugo Arbizu, a spokesman for the country's disaster prevention network.
In other parts of the country rivers swelled, washing away one small bridge. Authorities were closely monitoring the situation as it continued to rain in some areas, said Arbizu.
Guatemala's hilly terrain is vulnerable to floods and landslides during hurricane season, which has begun with several storms churning off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Mexico and Central America.
In 2005, Hurricane Stan killed hundreds of people when the side of mountain collapsed on an entire town in the middle of the night. (Reporting by Herbert Hernandez; Writing by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Vicki Allen)
