VERAPAZ -- Floods and landslides had killed at least 130 people in El Salvador and forced 10,000 from their homes Monday after a late-season hurricane devastated swaths of mountainous Central America.

Landslides and overflowing rivers swept away entire homes, while a raging torrent ripped through a large section of the town of Verapaz, where bodies -- covered in mud-caked sheets -- were stored in a local chapel to be identified.

"All we heard in the morning was the growl of the loud noise," said Arnoldo Paz, a resident of Verapaz in the central region of the country.

"It was a torrent of water and mud that swept away everything in its path. All I could do was tell my wife to grab the kids and flee," he told AFP, adding his home had been destroyed too.

Although Hurricane Ida did not hit the country of some seven million people directly, it brought heavy rain that affected the entire region.

President Mauricio Funes visited Verapaz, where he vowed that "this time, the government will not leave the people alone."

He has requested the national assembly to reallocate $150 million from an international loan of $300 million designed for anti-crisis measures.

"There is no doubt that this is a town that has been severely hit by a natural disaster, but it also shows the lack of preventive measures and risk mitigation that could have been carried out years ago," said Funes, who declared a state of emergency late Sunday.

"We must overcome the tragedy... I know that those lives lost can hardly be replaced."

Ida, now weakened to a tropical storm, was crossing the Gulf of Mexico ahead of expected landfall in Alabama in the United States early Tuesday, although tropical force winds were expected to hit from Louisiana to Florida as early as Monday afternoon.

Salvador's civil protection service director Jorge Melendez said the death toll had risen to 130 from 124, with more than 10,000 people in shelters and over 1,700 homes damaged or destroyed and 1,400 at risk.

Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez sought to reassure Salvadorans, saying the country was not facing the tragedy alone and international help was on the way.

Teams would shortly begin the challenging work in this hilly and mountainous land of evaluating the flood damage, according to Interior Minister Humberto Centeno.

Heavy downpours have lashed the country since Thursday, causing mudslides and flooding. Most of the deaths have occurred in the areas of San Salvador, La Libertad, Cuscatlan, La Paz and San Vicente.

Melendez warned there could still be more fatalities.

In Tepetitan, landslides and overflowing rivers carried away some 30 houses, authorities said. Some residents had agreed to evacuate the area, but a number refused to leave their homes, Mayor Ana Jovel said.

El Salvador has been on a state of alert since heavy rains associated with Ida struck the region and destroyed some 930 homes in neighboring Nicaragua, leaving some 13,000 people homeless.

Not even the country's only zoo was spared: a stream running alongside burst its banks, damaging some installations and killing a few animals, National Zoo director Raul Miranda said.

Torrential rains have also hit neighboring Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.

No victims or major damage have been reported either in Honduras or Mexico, but about 100 homes have been damaged by flooding in Guatemala, prompting the evacuation of at least 200 people there.