At least 66 killed as heavy rains continue in central America

At least 66 people have been killed in six days of heavy rains that caused landslides, floods and bridge failures throughout the Central American region. Officials ordered evacuations as the rain was expected to continue. El Salvador''s director of civil protection Jorge Melendez said in a news conference that at least 24 people had died in the country, most of them buried in their houses by landslides. The country is in a state of alert and preparing for "major disasters," Melendez added. Authorities were evacuating people from the area around a volcano near the capital of San Salvador, where hundreds died in landslides in 1982. Melendez said flooding had closed a major highway in the country''s west and destroyed a bridge. In the eastern state of San Miguel, water overflowed from the Rio Grande river and had inundated large expanses of farmlands.