At least 91 people have been killed and more than 60 declared missing in flooding and mudslides as a hurricane hits El Salvador, the country's government has said. Skip related content
Around 7,000 people have been taken to shelters, but many towns remain cut off from officials.
Rivers burst their banks and hillsides collapsed under relentless rains triggered by Hurricane Ida as sustained winds of nearly 100mph tore through the country.
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 issued travel warnings as 1,000 were 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.
Members of a gang arrested in Peru have confessed to killing people and extracting their body fat to sell to international cosmetic companies, police claim.
