At least 381 people were dead and thousands more missing in El Salvador yesterday after a massive earthquake rocked the Central American nation and set off landslides that engulfed entire towns.
President Francisco Flores said the death toll could go much higher and the damage was incalculable.
“We have made a request to the government of Colombia for 3,000 coffins,” he said.
Most of the dead were being pulled from the rubble in Santa Tecla, a few miles from the capital, San Salvador, where a massive mudslide engulfed as many as 500 homes.
“Everything was buried, and my entire family is dead,” one stricken Santa Tecla resident said.
Some 1,340 people have been evacuated to shelters, and hundreds were injured, said Mauricio Ferrer, director of the emergency committee.
The 7.6-magnitude quake occurred at 11:34 a.m. Saturday and was felt across El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras – and as far north as Mexico City.
About 40 or 50 local and foreign tourists were believed trapped on a volcano on the outskirts of San Salvador, and rescuers were trying to reach them.
Officials using helicopters to assess the damage estimated 20,000 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed across the country.
Strong aftershocks yesterday triggered up to 500 aftershocks, some of them big enough to send people fleeing from their homes in San Salvador.
Henry Weiss, an American engineer, was standing on the second floor of a concrete building in San Salvador when the quake hit.
“I thought the world had come to an end,” Weiss said. “The building moved up and down, and the 10-story in front of me was swaying back and forth. You have never felt anything like that.”