Deadly Floods Hit Central America

An aerial view from a U.S. Chinook helicopter of a destroyed road in a remote village near Ocos, San Marcos, outside Guatemala City, Thursday, Oct 13, 2005. U.S. soldiers from the 228th Aviation Battalion are currently deployed to Guatemala on a relief mission in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan, which has left over 600 dead and destroyed much of this seasons crops.

A U.S. Army flight officer helps residents unload about 10,000 pounds of emergency supplies from a Chinook helicopter in the remote Guatemalan village of Conception, about 155 miles outside Guatemala City, Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2005. U.S. soldiers from the 228th Aviation Battalion are currently deployed to Guatemala on a relief mission in the aftermath of Hurricane Stan, which has left over 600 dead and 600 missing.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu walks through a mudslide in the Mayam hamlet of Panabaj, Guatemala, Tuesday, Oct. 11 2005, on a tour of areas affected by Hurricane Stan. President Oscar Berger, who accompanied Menchu on the inspection tour, said that more than 400 people had been killed by the mudslides in Panabaj and a nearby hamlet.

Mayan Indians carry water back to their house in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, Tuesday Oct. 11 2005. President Oscar Berger accompanied Nobel Peace Prize winner Menchu Tum on an inspection tour of the Atitlan area.

A Sutujil Indian farmer prays Monday, Oct 10, 2005, at the church in Santiago Atitlan, a town where hundreds are believed to have died in last week's mudslides in Guatemala. Guatemalan officials said they would abandon communities buried by landslides and declare them mass graveyards as reports of devastation trickled in from some of the more than 100 communities cut off from the outside world.

Villagers shovel mud in an area near Panabaj, Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, about 110 miles south of Guatemala City, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2005. The landslide that buried several communities near the popular tourist destination of Lake Atitlan was believed to be the worst single disaster in several days of flooding that killed hundreds of people in southern Mexico and Central America.

An aerial view from a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter shows the destruction from a recent mudslide, one of many near the town of Panajachel, Guatemala, about 102 miles west of Guatemala City, Monday, Oct. 10, 2005.

Celia Lopez cries as she looks at her destroyed home in a neighborhood near the flooded Coatan River in the town of Tapachula in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, Oct. 10, 2005. Raging flood waters cut off large areas of Central America and southern Mexico.

Douglas Mejia bails muddy water from his flooded house in the neighborhood of Las Brisas, southeast of San Salvador, El Salvador, Monday, Oct. 10, 2005. The number of dead and missing linked to Hurricane Stan in Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico, rose to more than 1,000 on Monday.

Rescue workers try to cross a washed out road in Tecpan, Guatemala, 62 miles west of Guatemala City, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005. Rescue workers pulled dozens of bodies from a massive mudslide and from a swollen river, following five days of pounding rains in Central America and Mexico.

A rescue worker carries a child injured by a mudslide in Tecpan, Guatemala, which is 62 miles west of Guatemala City Thursday Oct. 6, 2005.

An aerial view of the flooded port of San Jose, Guatemala, located about 62 miles south of Guatemala City, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005. A week of relentless rains triggered flooding and mudslides in Guatemala, as well as flooding in El Salvador, Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras.

People are pulled over rails to cross the destroyed international bridge on the Mexico-Guatemala border at Ciudad Hidalgo in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico, Oct. 9, 2005. Raging flood waters cut off large areas of Central America and southern Mexico, hurting efforts to rescue victims of mudslides after Hurricane Stan swept through the region.

Residents recover their belongings from their flooded homes in a destroyed neighborhood near the Coatan river in Tapachula, the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico, Sunday Oct. 9, 2005. Raging flood waters cut off large areas of Central America and southern Mexico, hurting efforts to rescue victims of mudslides.

A man who tried to recover his belongings from his flooded home is rescued after he fell into the Coatan river in Tapachulam, Mexico, Sunday Oct. 9, 2005.

Irma Ramos, Maria Mirralez, and Claudia Granados, shown left to right, wash clothes on their flooded front porches after flood waters raised the level of Lake Ilopango in El Salvador, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2005. By Saturday, 65 people were killed and 40,000 were forced to evacuate in El Salvador from the effects of heavy rains related to Hurricane Stan in Mexico.