We are inviting our friends to send prayers to our Maya family in Guatemala (also Honduras & Southern Mexico).
Not only are they dealing with the continuing volcanic eruption of Pacaya, that is spilling volcanic ash all over Guatemala City and closing its airport, but now this tropical storm has added massive flooding in a wide area. The rain that tropical storm Agatha brought has caused lots of damage, and there have been many deaths especially in Chimaltenango , Guatemala City and Solola.

We have already heard back from Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj (13th Generation Quiche Mayan High Priest , Itinerant Ambassador of the Indigenous Pueblos Mayas, and President of the National Council of Elders Mayas) and his wife Elizabeth Araujo. (you can see the trailers of their upcoming documentary Shift of the Ages here) They live in Antigua only 45 minutes from Guatemala City. They were spared from the ash cloud, but the stress from over working has tired Tata a bit. Send him some love and healing.  We are still waiting to hear about the well being of our dear Bother Rigoberto Itzep Chanchavac who is a K'iche Maya Priest & Day Keeper.
You can read about him here  https://www.kachina.net/~alunajoy/wajshakib-batz.html .


First Tropical Storm of the Season Kills Scores More than 110,000 in Guatemala flee.
GUATEMALA CITY - Flooding and landslides from the season's first tropical storm have killed at least 150 people and left thousands homeless in Central America , officials said Monday . Dozens are still missing, thousands have lost homes and emergency crews are struggling to reach isolated communities cut off by washed-out roads and collapsed bridges caused by Tropical Storm Agatha.
The sun emerged Monday in hardest-hit Guatemala, where officials reported 123 dead and at least 90 missing. In the department of Chimaltenango — a province west of Guatemala City — landslides buried dozens of rural Indian communities and killed at least 60 people, Gov. Erick de Leon said.
"The department has collapsed," de Leon said. "There are a lot of dead people. The roads are blocked. The shelters are overflowing. We need water, food, clothes, blankets — but above all, money."

In the tiny village of Parajbei, a slide smothered three homes and killed 11 people.
"It was raining really hard and there was a huge noise," said Vicente Azcaj, 56, who ran outside and saw that a hill had crumbled. "Now everyone is afraid that the same will happen to their homes."

Volunteers from nearby villages worked nonstop since Sunday to recover the bodies in Parajbei, and on Monday they found the last two: brothers, 4 and 8 years old, who were buried under tons of dirt, rocks and trees.

As a thank-you, rescuers got a plate of rice and beans from the mayor of nearby Santa Apolonia. "It's a small thing, but it comes from the heart," Tulio Nunez told them through a translator.  Nunez said he worried about the well-being of survivors in the area because the landslides blocked roads and burst water pipes. "They don't have anything to drink," he said. In all some 110,000 people were evacuated in Guatemala.

Thousands more have fled their homes in neighboring Honduras, where the death toll rose to 15 even as meteorologists predicted three more days of rain. Two dams near the capital of Tegucigalpa overflowed into a nearby river, and officials warned people to stay away from swollen waterways.  "The risk is enormous," Mayor Ricardo Alvarez said. In El Salvador , at least 179 landslides have been reported and 11,000 people were evacuated. The death toll was nine, President Mauricio Funes said.
About 95% of the country's roads were affected by landslides, but most remain open, Transportation Minister Gerson Martinez said.

The Lempa River , which flows to the Pacific , topped its banks and flooded at least 20 villages, affecting some 6,000 people, said Jorge Melendez, director of the Civil Protection Agency.
Officials warned that the Acelhuate River, which cuts through San Salvador , was running at dangerously high levels and threatened to spill over into the capital's streets.

Agatha made landfall near the Guatemala-Mexico border Saturday as a tropical storm with winds up to 45 mph (75 kph). It dissipated the following day over the mountains of western Guatemala. The rising death toll is reminding nervous residents of Hurricane Mitch , which hovered over Central America for days in 1998, causing flooding and mudslides that killed nearly 11,000 people and left more than 8,000 missing and unaccounted for.
Rescue efforts in Guatemala have been complicated by a volcanic eruption Thursday near the capital that blanketed parts of the area with ash and closed the country's main airport. Officials are now allowing helicopters and propeller planes to take off, but commercial flights remain grounded.
 
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