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The remnants of Hurricane Eta unleashed torrential rains and catastrophic flooding on Central America, with fatalities sharply up as streets turned into rivers and dozens more were feared to be buried in their homes by mudslides. A man leads his pigs to safety in the municipality of El Progreso, department of Yoro, Honduras. Photo: AFP More than 70 people were killed across the region of mostly poor countries nestled between Mexico and Colombia, and hundreds were stranded on rooftops or cut off by floods. In Guatemala, the death toll shot up past 50 in he last day, according to President Alejandro Giammattei, who said mudslides around the town of San Cristobal Verapaz had swallowed about 25 homes. "Right now, we're trying to get there on foot because there's no other way," said Giammattei, referring to flooded out roads near the town, located about 193km north of the Guatemalan capital. In neighbouring Honduras, families waded through flooded streets of the northern city of San Pedro Sula, while cars sat almost submerged in parts of the central Guatemalan city of San Pedro Carcha, television footage and images posted on social media showed. Hundreds rescued in Honduras Hundreds of people were left stranded on roofs in Honduras as frantic rescue efforts played out. Rescuers were credited with taking around 500 people to safety. "We will not leave the area until we rescue the last person," Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez told local television, adding that rescue efforts led by police, soldiers and firefighters will continue overnight. Damage and destruction had spread across most of Honduras and speedboats and helicopters would be sent to take people to safety in inaccessible areas, Hernandez said earlier in the day. Residents navigate a flooded street in the city of El Progreso in Honduras. Photo: AFP One of the fiercest storms to hit Central America in years, Eta struck Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday with winds of 241km/h before weakening to a tropical depression as it moved inland and into neighbouring Honduras. Today, authorities confirmed at least seven deaths in Honduras. Media in Nicaragua also reported two miners had died in a mudslide. Guatemala's disaster relief agency Conred had earlier said about 15 homes were likely covered by mudslides, possibly affecting around 75 people. Giammattei had already declared a state of emergency in nearly half of the country's 22 departments. In both Guatemala and Panama, several people have been reported missing as water levels continue to rise. A boy and a man save chairs from a flooded house in Puerto Barrios, Izabal north of Guatemala City. Photo: AFP In southern Costa Rica, a landslide killed two people in a house, a Costa Rican woman and an American man, officials said. Meanwhile, five people, including three children, died in flooding in Panama's Chiriqui province, near the Costa Rica border, authorities said. Sixty fishermen safe There was at least one silver lining in Honduras, where 60 fishermen who disappeared at sea on Tuesday (local time) returned after taking shelter on cays until they were rescued, a community leader Robin Morales said. Calling their survival a "miracle," Morales said a man among them presumed dead from a heart attack also made it back. "Our friends are alive, thank God," he said. Across swaths of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica, high winds and heavy rain have damaged homes, roads and bridges, forcing thousands to take cover in shelters. Eta was moving northwest over Honduras and Belize and headed toward the Caribbean, at 13km/h today, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said. Heavy rains continued and the storm's top winds edged up to 56km/h. Eta is forecast to return to sea and regain momentum as a tropical storm, possibly reaching the Cayman Islands, Cuba and southern Florida in the coming days, the NHC said. - Reuters

Travellers from New Zealand will be able to fly directly into Melbourne and explore Victoria without undergoing quarantine from Monday, as the state moves to join the travel bubble already in place between other states. Travellers from New Zealand will be flee to move around Victoria from next week. Photo: AFP After an extensive winter lockdown because of Covid cases Victoria is now opening up to the travel bubble with other parts of Australia. The trans-Tasman travel is one-way only, as New Zealand is yet to allow quarantine-free travel with Australia. Victoria has recorded its seventh consecutive day without any new coronavirus cases being reported and a number of restrictions are expected to ease on Sunday, including the removal of the "ring of steel" separating regional Victoria and Melbourne. At a press briefing today, Premier Daniel Andrews said he had written to Australlia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison indicating the state would be happy for flights from New Zealand into Melbourne to resume from Monday. "I don't think it will be very difficult at all," he said. "I think Melbourne Airport will be very keen to have those flights land. "It may not happen on the night, but that's when we're happy to have it happen and it will be a matter for airlines and the airport to make the practical changes to give effect to that." Andrews confirmed there would be no quarantine requirement for New Zealand and travellers would be free to move around Victoria. St Kilda Beach in Melbourne is among spots that are filling up again as the city recovers from its second Covid-19 wave. Photo: AFP The travel safe zone set up by the federal government last month restarted travel from New Zealand into New South Wales and the Northern Territory, with South Australia joining later. Once New Zealand travellers arrive in Australia, they are able to to travel within the nation in keeping with the current domestic restrictions in place. As a result of the rules, some New Zealand travellers had already been able to enter Victoria, but Andrews said the change meant the "front door" would be open for New Zealanders to land directly into Melbourne Airport. Quarantine-free travel from Australia to New Zealand is still not allowed, with the New Zealand government saying it would only reopen its borders once that was judged to be safe. - ABC