The death toll in Guatemala surged Thursday to 119 from 79 after a mudslide crushed a country house in the tourist town of Santiago Atitlan, killing 40 people 18 kilometers (11 miles) west of Guatemala City.

Stan also left 65 dead in El Salvador, 11 in Nicaragua and 15 in Mexico, according to authorities in each country. Authorities feared the death toll could rise.

The storm slammed ashore as a hurricane in Mexico's state of Veracruz early Tuesday. Stan was downgraded to a tropical depression by the end of the day, but caused major flooding and landslides in southern Mexico and Central America.

Forecasters warn the remnants of Stan can still produce heavy rains and trigger severe flooding and landslides for the next days.

In Guatemala, more than 38,000 people were homeless, another 16,400 were evacuated and 106 injured. Some 140,000 were forced from their homes in Mexico and 54,000 in El Salvador.

The United Nations said it was sending a team of disaster experts.

Guatemalan and Salvadoran authorities declared states of emergency to rush aid to the devastated areas. Rescuers pleaded with colleagues who had not joined the effort to help, saying they were shorthanded.

A spokesman for the Red Cross in El Salvador described the storm as "bigger than the rescue capacity."

"We have floods everywhere, bridges about to collapse, landslides and dozens of roads blocked by mudslides," the spokesman said.

Salvadoran President Antonio Saca, who toured affected areas in his small Central American country, warned that heavy rainfall would continue through Thursday and urged residents to evacuate threatened areas.

Thousands of Salvadorans have already fled, not only from the threat of mudslides and flash floods, but also from an eruption of the Santa Ana volcano, which Saturday killed two people.

The UN in El Salvador made an inter-agency appeal for roughly 6.5 million dollars (5.8 million euros) to meet the immediate needs of victims of the flooding and the volcanic eruption.

Dozens of landslides were reported across the country, causing many of the deaths blamed on Stan. The Panamerican Highway leading to the capital San Salvador was cut off by mudslides, as were several other roads.

"The situation is more than critical," said Raul Murillo, spokesman of the National Emergency Commission.

In Mexico, tens of thousands were forced to flee their homes, and state oil company Pemex had evacuated 270 workers from its offshore platforms before the storm hit land.

In the impoverished, mountainous Mexican state of Chiapas, pounding rain caused several rivers to overflow, smashing homes near the Guatemalan border, causing bridges to collapse and flooding roads.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, has been one of the deadliest and most active on record.

Hurricane Katrina, which slammed the US Gulf of Mexico coast August 29, ravaged New Orleans and coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, killing more than 1,200 people and becoming the deadliest storm to hit the United States since 1928.

Stan was the 10th Atlantic hurricane this year. Tropical Storm Tammy, which was off the US East Coast, was downgraded Thursday to a tropical depression southeast of Alabama and all tropical storm warnings were dropped.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

Related Links
TerraDaily
Search TerraDaily
Subscribe To TerraDaily Express

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only