Storm death toll rises in Central America

At least 105 people have been killed in flooding and landslides provoked by 10 days of heavy rains in Central America, officials have said.

More than a million people have been affected in the region, prompting officials to ask for humanitarian aid and urge those unaffected to show solidarity.

Much of the aid is expected to go to Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and to the hardest-hit country, El Salvador.

Almost 152cm of rain have accumulated in the past 10 days.

The cumulative record of Hurricane Mitch, which devastated the region in 1998, killing 11,000 people, was 86cm, said German Rosa Chavez, the Salvadoran natural resources minister, on Friday.

Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes urged the international community to send humanitarian aid, saying in a televised message to the nation on Wednesday: “El Salvador is going through one of the most dramatic disasters in its history”.

In Honduras, President Porfirio Lobo urged his countrymen to help their fellow citizens.

“This is a new call for solidarity,” Lobo said.

Guatemala has reported 38 deaths, El Salvador, 34, Honduras, 15, Nicaragua 13 and Costa Rica, five.

Everton Fox, Al Jazeera’s meteorologist, said “The arrival of three tropical systems in barely a week has brought flashfloods and mudslides into much of Central America. Hurricane Jova, Tropical Depression 12 and most recently, the remnants of Tropical Depression Irwin, have all caused widespread devastation to the region.”

The United Nations has classified Central America as one of the parts of the world most affected by climate change.