Costa Ricans slowly leave shelters in wake of Hanna side effects

Alex Leff September 5, 2008

Residents in Costa Rica’s northwestern Guanacaste province began returning yesterday to their homes after heavy rain from Tropical Storm Hanna sideswiped the Pacific coast last week, flooding hundreds of houses and forcing more than 2,000 people into emergency shelters.

Nearly 1,400 people remained in shelters as of yesterday afternoon, according to the National Emergency Commission (CNE), which is helping to provide medical care and food to the storm’s victims.

The U.S. government is donating $40,000 to cover the cost of helicopters hired to reach communities left isolated by flooding and road damage, a U.S. Embassy press release said Friday.

Emergency workers managed to reach the town of Miramar in the Puntarenas province, where 35 families were cut off when their main road caved in, according CNE spokeswoman Rebeca Madrigal.

The commission counted 21 bridges, five aqueducts and 34 roads in a preliminary assessment of the damage. A total of 127 towns and villages in Guanacaste and Puntarenas were affected. The commission is keeping up the alerts it issued Thursday for those provinces, Madrigal said.