Agatha Floods Homes; 13 Die in Guatemala, El Salvador (Udpate1)
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Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom declared a “state of calamity” as the first tropical storm of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season, Agatha, flooded about 600 homes and killed 12 people the day after a volcanic eruption. A thirteenth person died in El Salvador.
Landslides triggered by Agatha’s rains killed eight adults and four children in western Guatemala, said David de Leon, a spokesman for the national disaster agency. The rains may combine with ash that blanketed the capital from a volcanic eruption yesterday to clog the capital’s drainage system, leading to more flooding, he said.