TEGUCIGALPA (USA) - A TROPICAL depression has sown devastation across Central America since last week, killing at least 39 people, leaving six missing and 250,000 others homeless, local authorities reported on Wednesday.

Close to 10,000 homes have been destroyed by widespread flooding, as well as roads and bridges in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Authorities also reported thousands of hectares of farmland lost to flooding in what is considered the worst weather-related catastrophe since Hurricane Mitch in 1998 tore through the region killing almost 20,000 people.