VIDEOS: Water sweeps away roads, bridges, cattle around Costa Rica

In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Nate – which caused deaths, flooding and countless infrastructure crises around Costa Rica on Thursday – communities, news outlets and regional websites around the country shared images and news from their towns and cities.

In Guanacaste, La Voz de Guanacaste reported that the Río Nosara had overflowed, cutting the community off from Route 160 and leaving at least 60 people in shelters.

Local news organization Calles Guanacaste shared this video of Río Líbano in Tilarán.

“The force of the water made part of the water disappear,” Calles Guanacaste wrote, using a word echoed by posters around the country describing the overflowing rivers: disappear.

Repretel (Channel 6 news) posted this video of cows being swept away by a rushing river in the northwestern Pacific province.

This video shared by Radio SINAI and on the regional Facebook page of PerezZeledón.net was one of dozens showing the extraordinary impact of the rains in this Southern Zone community. In this case, the waters swept away a section of road in La Palma.

“Hurricanes have come through in previous years and didn’t leave behind as much damage in this area as the rains of the past eight hours,” Pérez Zeledón wrote alongside the video on its Facebook page. “…No one expected this event to have such an impact on our municipality. There’s no bridge, the Bar Sapo Chingo has been carried away, and Pérez Zeledón is completely cut off from the rest of country by all land routes. Be careful and let’s pray to God that there are new human losses to mourn.”