Rain began to fall in El Salvador on Saturday, raising fears that more mudslides could tear into peasant villages after an earthquake devastated the Central American nation a week earlier.
Roman Catholic leaders said they would lead the devout nation in mourning prayers at a service to mark the first week since a 7.6-magnitude quake triggered avalanches of earth and boulders that killed at least 700 people and demolished 120,000 homes.
Mourners were due to gather for the religious service in San Salvador around a monument to the saint who gave his name “the savior” to the capital.
President Francisco Flores, who planned to attend the prayers, said the quake that loosened hillsides across the mountainous nation of 6.2 million people left peasant villages vulnerable to the effects of the first precipitation in a week.
Meteorologists said they were relieved that rains were light and did not cause any new landslides Saturday.
Still, relief agencies warned that the situation remained critical for an estimated 200,000 people who need food and are at risk of epidemics such as cholera from contaminated water, especially in the isolated countryside.
“Needs in rural areas have not been met at all,” said Raymond Offenheiser, president of Oxfam’s anti-poverty operations in the Americas.
Despite the sporadic rain, an international relief operation continued.
