Mexican governor: hundreds feared dead in slide
Associated Press, Oaxaca, Mexico | Tue, 09/28/2010 10:06 PM
A hillside collapsed on a rural Mexican community on Tuesday and the region's governor said hundreds of people are feared dead.
Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz told the Televisa television network that the early morning landslide in the town Santa Maria de Tlahuitoltepec buried 100 to 300 houses and speculated that 500 to 1,000 people could be dead.
Donato Vargas, an official in Santa Maria de Tlahuitoltepec reached by a satellite telephone, said 500 people were missing and that 300 homes were buried.
'We were all sleeping and all I heard was a loud noise and when I left the house I saw that the hill had fallen," Vargas said.
He said he called the Mexican army and state officials for help.
"It has been difficult informing authorities because the roads are very bad and there isn't a good signal for or phone," Vargas said shortly before the call dropped.
Ruiz said the landslide followed days of rain in the Sierra de Juarez region.
Rescuers were flying in from Mexico City and emergency personnel have been sent to the town about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Oaxaca city and 130 miles (220 kilometers) from Mexico City.
