Guatemalan landslide death toll rises to 86, with hundreds still missing

El Cambray is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of Guatemala City. The hill that towers over Cambray…

The rescue authorities said they were following global protocols which recommended 72 hours of search and rescue.

Rescue teams resumed searching on Sunday for victims of the mudslide in a community outside Guatemala City that killed at least 87 people and left 350 others missing, emergency management officials said. But at its center, the landslide buried houses under a layer of rocks and earth as much as 50 feet (15 meters) deep.

Gonzalez said he was working at his job at a McDonald’s restaurant when the landslide occurred. However, other bodies, a few of which were found in pieces, remain unidentified.

The grim list of the dead identified so far included at least 21 children and teenagers.

Rescuer reported that the smell of rotting bodies was spreading across the mound of earth that had buried the village. Instead of digging by hand and listening for survivors, crews planned to use mostly backhoes and bulldozers to speed up the search for bodies.

“May God have mercy on the dead, grant healing to the injured, comfort loved ones and give the rescue workers strength”, he said on Twitter.

“But we have enough hope to keep looking, even if just one more person gets out alive”, he added.

There are fears that up to 300 more people may have perished. Hundreds of people are believed to have died, and numerous bodies were never recovered.

Santa Catarina, a municipality in the county of Guatemala and set right next to the city limits, is a middle-class suburb of government workers, salesmen, taxi drivers and cooks.

As time went on, hope of finding anyone alive dwindled.

“Six of my family members are missing – my parents and four siblings”, Elvin Sin said.

Her grandson, Bryan Sandoval, 17, was pictured with a giant trophy from a band competition. The drum major was crying while raising his baton and leading the band. The extended Sandoval family first learned of the mudslide via a relative’s posting on Facebook.

SANTA CATARINA PINULA, Guatemala A wall of mud stopped everyday life mid-text, mid-sentence, mid-dream for the family of Manuel Sandoval and Maritza Aquino.

The landslide is one of the worst since October 20005, when heavy rainfall triggered a devastating landslide in southwestern Guatemala.

Both Alex and Jonathan were born in San Jose, California.

Rescue workers could be seen calling out to those trapped under the soil and listening intently for replies or movement.

The family ran a store, which was also destroyed.