hillside collapse. the first funeral has been held in new zealand for the youngest victim of last week s earthquake. a 5-month-old boy was laid to rest. but rescuers say the chances of finding someone alike is highly unlikely. 148 people are known to have died. police are saying that the final death toll will probably be over 200. they say some victims may never be identified. kim vernell has more on the search and rescue. how does a city come back from this? christchuch is ripped apart. but on the ground, these men aren t giving up. we always have hope that we re going to come across someone that is trapped in a void we get to. these images filmed by rescuers show the dangers they face. dippers are doing most of the work at the pine gold building,
rural mexican community where there are roughly 300 homes and initial reports from the regional governor there are saying that roughly 500 to 1,000 people could be feared dead. again, this was roughly 300 houses in the area that were buried. we understand that there have been heavy rains and also swollen rivers in that area that could have led to this hillside collapse and rescuers having a hard time reaching the area. as soon as we get pictures on the ground and more information that we can confirm to you we will bring to you right here on msnbc. north korean leader kim jong-il is laying the ground work to keep control of the country and keep it in the family. he made his youngest son and favorite son kim pyjong. no one knows what he looks like and this is the first time his name was mentioned in north korean state media.
students, but because of the hour, i think that was the saving grace here, if you will. ron garcia, we appreciate you weighed in and keeping us up to date and we are keeping our eye on the situation. when we get details, we will pass them along. we have another breaking news story from mexico. hundreds of families may be dead because of this hillside collapse that happened there. it was a landslide that happened in the region of mexico, the southern part of the country, closer to guatemala. after days of rain, a landslide buried between 100 and 300 homes, as many as 1,000 people could be dead. rescuers meantime having challenges even getting to the area. the weather channel s alex wal sas in atlanta. me a little bit about the weather conditions and how it might hamper the rescue effort. we are talking about an area here that is very, very hilly.