A hundred Costa Ricans fled their drenched homes for refuge in dry shelters after heavy rains earlier this week and amid forecasts for more precipitation as the peak rainy season heads into its second month, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) said yesterday.
Preliminary damage reports show some 50 homes, four roads and several bridges (no official count was available) affected by the rain, many of them in the provinces of San José and Cartago.
Route 2 sustained a landslide at Kilometer 232, while other roads in Pérez Zeledón and Cipreses de Montes de Oca were also damaged.
CNE called its four shelters – all of which are housed in churches – part of a “preventive measure,” issuing a “green” alert, the lowest level of the cautionary weather warnings, for towns and villages throughout much of Costa Rica´s central Pacific, Central Valley and northwestern regions.
The alert covers a host of communities pummeled in recent storms, such as Bagaces, Santa Cruz, Nicoya and Tilarán in the north-central Chorotega region, Aguirre and Parrita in the Central Pacific, and the Southern Zone region of Pérez Zeledón. The list also includes the city of San José and nearby communities in Escazú, Santa Ana, Curridabat, Moravia and Montes de Oca.
