Continuing Rain, Mud Slow Emergency Response and Rescue After Deadly Mudslides Eduardo Verdugo - Associated Press
go to original September 22, 2013

More than 100 people have died in Mexico after two tropical storms struck the North American country last weekend. Worst hit were the mountainous areas around the resort city of Acapulco, while a mudslide buried more than 60 people in a remote mountain village in La Pintada. Al Jazeera's David Mercer reports from La Pintada. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

LA PINTADA — Fourteen hours per body.

That's how long rescue crews with shovels, hydraulic equipment, anything they can muster, are averaging to find the victims of a massive landslide that took half the remote coffee-growing village of La Pintada, leaving 68 people missing.

The Mexican army's emergency response and rescue team slogged in pouring rain and several feet of mud with five rescue dogs on Saturday, recovering two women who were buried in the same area near a kindergarten, the second body under more than four feet of dirt. At least two children are believed to be nearby.

Lt. Carlos Alberto Mendoza, commander of the 16-soldier team, said it's the most daunting situation he's seen in 24 years with the Mexican army.

"They are doing unbelievable work, hours and hours for just one body," he told The Associated Press. "No matter how hard the day is, they never get tired of working."

La Pintada was the scene of the single greatest tragedy in destruction wreaked by the twin storms, Manuel and Ingrid, which simultaneously pounded both of Mexico's coasts a week ago, spawning huge floods and landslides across a third of the country. The death toll stands at 101, not counting five federal police who died on a rescue mission Thursday when their Blackhawk helicopter crashed as they were leaving La Pintada. The wreckage wasn't found until Saturday. The toll also excludes the 68 missing.

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