Weather wreaks havoc in Costa Rica
Mother Earth is once again causing despair and destruction in Costa Rica, this time by way of rain, wind, earth and fire. Just one month after the Jan. 8 earthquake reeked havoc on the country, destroying homes and roads and claiming some 33 lives, another cold front has brought on more devastation to the country’s infrastructure and people.
While strong winds are typical this time of year in Costa Rica, a cold front heading in from the Caribbean since Wednesday evening added fuel to the fire, bringing winds of up to 100 kph (62 miles per hour). The blustery weather not only dropped temperatures as low as 50 degrees in some regions, it caused power outages affecting some 200,000 people and ripped roofs off of an estimated 100 homes and businesses in San Jose, Alajuela, Heredia, Guanacaste and Puntarenas. ICE said it has attended to about 60% of over 40 fallen electricity posts, each incurring a cost of ,000.
In Liberia, where power and even water outages affected much of the population, the winds reached up to 85 kph and caused destruction to homes and buildings. In San Jose winds reached up to 65 kph in areas like Pavas, while the brunt of the force hit Puntarenas where 40 buildings lost their roofs, and the area around San Luis de Sabanilla and San Juan de Poas where winds reached 100 kph.
In the areas hit hardest by the earthquake, Vara Blanca de Heredia and Sarapiqui de Alajuela, the winds were estimated between 60 and 80 kph, which mixed with low temperatures and heavy rains, paralyzed recovery efforts once again.
Heavy rain started to affect nearly half of Costa Rica on Wednesday night with the arrival of the cold front. The hardest hit areas include most of the Caribbean coast and parts of northern Costa Rica from Barra del Colorado, Tortuguero, Parismina, Siquirres, Matina all the way to the southern Caribbean. Communities in this area, especially Sixaola, which finally recovered from the severe flooding that occurred three months ago, are vigilant of nearby rivers as a total of 8 have already flooded, and the waters continue to rise.
A total of three communities have been completely isolated due to flood waters and nearly 400 people have had to evacuate their homes. In route to Limon, a bus with some 30 banana plantation workers was washed down the road in a flash flood from which all of them were able to escape. In another flash flood incident, a man lost his life after managing to swim to shore when he suffered from a heart attack.
Luckily, today is expected to mark the end of the heavy rains that are still affecting the Caribbean and northern zone, while the winds continue to diminish in the Central Valley along with light rain.
Unfortunately the rain has not helped to cease the spread of fires spread by the strong winds. Between Wednesday evening and yesterday firefighters have had to attend to more than 150 emergencies. The firefighting chief said that while all of their 95 units were attending other calls, they still had a wait list of 60 other emergencies, among them fires and other damages provoked by the strong winds.
As another result of the inclement weather, landslides have become a danger along the road from San Miguel to Cariblanco de Alajuela, the same area damaged by the Jan. 8 quake. Along with the mud comes boulders and trees as well as a threat of flash floods from the Sarapiqui River.
Efforts to restore the road washed away from the earthquake have stopped and the road from Rio Cuarto de Grecia to Colonia Toro Amarillo as well as Route 126 that goes to Los Cartagos in Santa Barbara de Heredia have also been closed until Feb. 9 due to landslides.
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