8:19am UK, Monday November 09, 2009

David Williams, Sky News Online

At least 124 people have been killed and more than 60 declared missing in flooding and mudslides triggered by a hurricane in El Salvador, the country’s government has said.

Residents stand on a bridge which collapsed in Zacatecoluca, El Salvador

Around 7,000 people have been taken to shelters, but many towns remain cut off.

Rivers burst their banks and hillsides collapsed under relentless rains triggered by Hurricane Ida as winds of nearly 100mph tore through the country.

In a national radio broadcast, El Salvador’s president Mauricio Funes described the disaster as “a tragedy” and said the damage caused was “incalculable”.

The capital of San Salvador and central San Vicente province are the hardest-hit regions.

“We have been through disaster zones, including a fly-over of the area of Verapaz (in San Vicente),” Interior Minister Humberto Centeno said.

“It is a real tragedy there.”

The Category 2 storm is now roaring towards the Gulf of Mexico, where important oil fields are located.

The governor of Louisiana has declared a state of emergency, a precautionary move to free up state resources in the event of a disaster.

Ida swept past the Mexican resort of Cancun, but is expected to weaken gradually as it travels towards some of the central Gulf’s oil and gas facilities.

The Mexican government has issued travel warnings and 1,000 people have been evacuated from Holbox island northwest of Cancun.

Ida first became a hurricane on Thursday off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, where heavy rains forced more than 5,000 people into shelters.