"Hope dims for rescue in Guatemala mudslide" Associated Press October 05, 2015
SANTA CATARINA PINULA, Guatemala — Hope faded Sunday for finding any survivors of a mudslide that killed at least 131 people as the smell of rotting bodies spread across the enormous mound of earth and rescuers reported the buried dwellings they reached were filled with water, suggesting anyone trapped inside would have drowned.
Rescue workers pulled corpses from the mound created when a hillside collapsed and covered about 4 acres with mud and dirt as deep as 15 yards.
Authorities said about 300 people may still be missing. But they left open the possibility that many of them had taken refuge with relatives without contacting authorities or that they were not in the 125 buried homes when the mudslide struck Thursday night.
Rescuers decided to keep individual emergency workers, relatives, and reporters off the mound of dirt 15 yards deep. Instead of digging by hand and listening for survivors, rescuers planned to use mostly backhoes and bulldozers to speed up the work of finding bodies.
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Whatever happened with that election anyway?
