<p><br /> Flooding and landslides from the first tropical storm of the season have killed at least 144 people and left thousands homeless in Central America.<br /> </p><p><br /> Dozens of people are still missing and emergency crews are struggling to reach isolated communities cut off by washed-out roads and collapsed bridges caused by Tropical Storm Agatha.<br /> </p><p><br /> Guatemala has been the hardest-hit so far, with officials reporting 120 dead and at least 53 missing.<br /> </p><p><br /> In the department of Chimaltenango, a province west of Guatemala City, landslides buried dozens of rural Indian communities and killed at least 60 people.<br /> </p><p><br /> In all some 110,000 people have been evacuated across the country.<br /> </p><p><br /> Rescue efforts have been complicated by an eruption by the Papaya volcano on Thursday near the capital that blanketed parts of the area with ash.<br /> </p><p><br /> But that has now tapered off allowing helicopters and small planes to deliver aid to communities still unreachable on washed out roads.<br /> </p><p><br /> Thousands more have fled their homes in neighbouring Honduras, where the death toll rose to 15 as meteorologists predicted three more days of rain.<br /> </p><p><br /> In El Salvador, at least 179 landslides have been reported and 11,000 people evacuated, with the death toll there reaching nine.<br /> </p><p><br /> Agatha made landfall near the Guatemala-Mexico border on Saturday as a tropical storm with winds up to 45 mph. It dissipated the following day over the mountains of western Guatemala.<br /> </p>
