Heavy rains afflicting El Salvador

The rainy season has arrived in El Salvador, and heavy rains related to the first Pacific tropical storm of the season, Agatha, have produced flooding in El Salvador. The government has raised the country's alert level to orange, as the rains threaten to push rivers out of their banks. There have been evacuations in areas at risk for landslides and flooding. At least one person has died. Events on Sunday to commemorate the first anniversary of Mauricio Funes in office have been cancelled.

There is a photo gallery from La Prensa Grafica here showing images from the flooding.

El Salvador has not been as heavily impacted as its neighbor Guatemala where a dozen have died from Agatha's downpours, and that country is also dealing with the impact of the eruption of the Pacaya volcano. In both countries, poor communities built on hillsides and along waterways suffer most from natural disasters.