The gangly arms of four backhoes dug through a mound of sandy soil that had buried many of the residents of El Cambray alive in a landslide.
Carefully, the diggers turned up sheet metal roofs, broken walls and the bodies of people trapped in the dirt bulging over much of the Guatemalan village.
By early Sunday, they had recovered least 86 people who died after the side of a towering hill broke loose suddenly and crashed down on the village in the darkness of Thursday night.
Since then, residents and rescuers have shoveled and even burrowed with their hands in search of the hundreds of victims the country’s Public Ministry estimates were inside the dozens of homes that were instantly engulfed by the landslide.
“The figure we are using as potentially missing — and I want to emphasize that this is an estimate — is of 600 people missing,” said Alejandro Maldonado, the national coordinator for disaster reduction. Many people in El Cambray did not heed a warning to evacuate, he said.
El Cambray is located about 10 miles east of Guatemala City.
Somber finds
Rain had soaked the village and the forested hills that rise steeply up around it. The town is nestled in a deep valley, leaving little space between the hillside and the homes below to buffer the force of the earth and trees that fell down on them.
The rescuers and villagers formed long bucket lines of up to 100 people to pass away dirt and debris. Some carried out the bodies of neighbors and loved ones, including children.
“We found the two month-old twins, and now we are looking for their mother and sister,” a villager said.
“We only found one of my nieces, in a state that nobody would want to see a family member,” said another.
Many were still waiting for the first body of their loved ones to turn up.
“I have 20 missing family members — my seven brothers, my dad and my brother in law,” another villager said.
As they tried to salvage what they could from under the dirt to aid them in grieving, the pale gash in the hill left by the landslide gaped down at those digging.
On Saturday, the workers stopped what they were doing briefly and stood still for a moment of silence.
