Hurricane Stan, which had helped spawn rainstorms in Central America, weakened to a depression over the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca on Wednesday, a day after making landfall along Mexico's Gulf coast. But punishing rains continued in parts of Central America and southern Mexico.
In Guatemala, two mudslides in Solola and nearby San Lucas Toleman, both about 60 miles west of Guatemala City, buried several houses. It was not clear how many people were under the debris, said Carlos Santizo, chief of the Solola fire department.
An AP photographer on site said he saw at least 12 bodies recovered.
The additional victims would bring the death toll in Guatemala alone to at least 31, and the total number of confirmed victims to 99.
Flooding in more than 88 Guatemalan communities forced the evacuation of more than 6,000 residents. Nearly all of the country's rivers overflowed their banks, while landslides and fallen trees blocked at least 30 roadways. Most of the victims were killed in landslides, national disaster agency officials said.
Guatemalan President Oscar Berger called on Congress to declare a national state of emergency, allowing the government to force evacuations of dangerous areas, set prices on emergency supplies and provide federal coordination of relief efforts.
In the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador, at least 49 people were killed by four days of mudslides and flooding. More than 16,700 Salvadorans had fled their homes for 167 shelters nationwide.
Nine people died in storms in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed to be Ecuadoreans killed in a boat wreck.
Four deaths were reported in Honduras and one in Costa Rica.
In the Chiapas city of Tapachula, near Mexico's border with Guatemala, two people were killed when they were dragged away by a river that overflowed its banks and roared through the city, also carrying homes of wood and metal with it, civil protection officials said Wednesday. The flooding forced hundreds of evacuations.
President Vicente Fox paid a visit to the area Wednesday.
