Playa Las Hojas - The death toll from flooding and mudslides in El Salvador triggered by the passage of Hurricane Ida rose to 130 people on Monday (November 9). Rivers burst their banks and hillsides collapsed under rains triggered by Ida's passage, cutting off parts of the mountainous interior from the rest of the nation.

More than 130,000 people were evacuated in different parts of the country on Saturday (November 07) as rains worsened. The hurricane did not directly hit the Central American country but left heavy rain storms in it's wake which caused mudslides and ravaged hundreds of homes.

Playa Las Hojas in the department of La Paz, close to the capital city of San Salvador was hard hit.

Homes were destroyed next to the beach. Residents here started an arduous clean-up operation and rescued what belongings they could find including chairs and tables while walking along flooded streets.

A devastated Playa Las Hojas resident, Petronila Pacas lost her home. She feared the worst when she was away from home and it started raining. Her worse nightmare came true when she returned home to find it gone.

"I kept thinking we should return home (after the storm) and I walked back thinking I had lost my house," she told Reuters.
 

While the clean-up operation continues, others stay at refuges.

A side of the Chinchontepec volcano collapsed on the town of Verapaz below in the central department of San Vicente, burying houses and entire families under a torrent of mud and rocks.

The departments of La Libertad, Cuscatlan and San Salvador were also affected, where the swollen rivers of Jiboa, Grande and El Alcelhuete destroyed dozens of bridges and highways, cutting off thousands of Salvadorans.

Civil Protection authorities said more than 200 homes had been destroyed but another 1,800 had been damaged.

President Mauricio Funes said he was asking the Congress to approve $150 million in emergency funds to help people hit by the storm and support farmers who lost crops. Bean e fields, a major staple in the impoverished country, were badly damaged, the agriculture
ministry said.

Ida weakened to a tropical storm on Monday as it churned toward oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and was forecast to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast early on Tuesday between Louisiana and Florida.