As information came in from the countryside, where hundreds of communities remained isolated, the government said 594 bodies had been counted in El Salvador. At least six people died in neighboring Guatemala, and hundreds of people were still believed to be buried.
The vast majority of those killed were here in Santa Tecla, where a mountain of rock and earth came tumbling down on the Las Colinas neighborhood, three miles west of the capital, San Salvador.
Salvadoran police said 1,830 people were injured and nearly 34,000 houses damaged or destroyed in Saturday’s 7.6-magnitude quake.
Rescuers said the chances of finding survivors were dwindling as more time passed and the ground, convulsed from the landslides, settled.
Residents of Las Colinas complained that the government allowed land owners over the years to clear trees from the hillside, alleging that the lack of ground cover left those below vulnerable to landslides.
The quake loosened that hillside, burying the middle-class neighborhood at its base and bringing down some of the mansions above.
Although the largest number of deaths appeared to be in Las Colinas, the quake caused 185 landslides across El Salvador, burying coffee workers and blocking roads.
The numbers varied and the death toll was expected to rise. The emergency committee for the Santa Tecla region said 436 were dead here alone. It said 366 remained missing — hundreds less than the figure given Saturday by the Red Cross.
Police said nearly 18,000 people had been evacuated from dangerous areas. Many were living with relatives or in shelters. Others who still had homes lacked basic services. Water service was cut to as many as half of the country’s 6 million people, the Pan-American Health Organization said.
Aftershocks continued to rock the country yesterday, frightening residents and knocking more debris onto highways. Many towns were reachable only by helicopter, and little was known about damage or deaths in isolated communities.
In Las Colinas, environmentalists and residents had sued landowners and construction companies to stop the deforestation of the hillside. A judge had ruled against them, and angry residents yesterday argued that the resulting development had caused hundreds of deaths.
“What good does money do us if we are subjecting our children to something like this?” asked Santa Tecla Mayor Oscar Ortiz.
After two days of rescue efforts, officials pulled Sergio Moreno from beneath a pile of cinder blocks and earth late Sunday, raising hopes that more may be found alive. But kidney and heart failure left Moreno fighting for his life yesterday.
While buried, Moreno had used his cell phone to call for help. After 31 hours waiting to be freed, he began to lose faith. At one point, anguished, he told rescuers: “You stayed here to watch me die.”
Army Maj. Jose Miranda said there was little chance more survivors would be found, adding that the majority of those under the rubble who weren’t killed instantly likely had already suffocated.
“Nonetheless, at 4 a.m. they pulled out a body that still had warm blood on it, so anything is possible,” he said.
Kathia Machaca has lost all hope that her parents and two oldest daughters will be found alive. Rescuers found the body of one of her children, 5-year-old Kathia, but she had no information on the others.
Pulling a child’s sock from the mud, she said: “I’m finding everything from the house except the most important things.”
She has stayed at the spot where her parents’ house used to be since the quake, and she vowed not to leave.
“I won’t move from here until they find the bodies,” she said, weeping.
Her daughter, who had been riding her bicycle when the earthquake struck, was found hugging a boy.
“Maybe she was afraid,” Machaca said.
Her brother, Oscar, 25, also lived at the house, but had been at work as a chauffeur when the quake struck.
“I ran home after the quake because I thought my mother would be worried about me, but… ” he said, pausing with tears running down his cheeks. “I felt like I was dying.”
