Guatemala’s CONRED disaster agency said rescue crews in Guatemala had stopped searching for victims of the huge landslide that struck earlier in the month. The toll stood at 280 dead and 70 missing, sharply reducing earlier estimates of the number unaccounted for.
Tons of earth, rocks, and trees buried entire families alive when a hillside collapsed onto part of Santa Catarina Pinula, on the outskirts of Guatemala City. Local search teams spent 12 days trying to find victims beneath the debris.
In the days after the disaster, authorities gave differing estimates of the missing. By Friday, when the death toll reached 253, CONRED said 374 people were still missing.
Authorities later said they had conducted a new count using municipal land records, local electricity-company data, neighbors’ testimony, and other sources.