Natural disasters

The National Emergency Commission evacuated eight families on Thursday . Mud and debris from the landslides damaged their homes, but the families are safe and healthy.

The Red Cross confirmed that as of Thursday noon, the organization had not received any reports of injured people for the earthquake, but 15 people were evacuated to a shelter.

The risk of a massive landslide in the southwestern San José canton of Mora prompted municipal officials to order the evacuation of some 20 families living in a mountainous area known as Quebrada Honda.

Sustained tremor activity that started at 8 p.m. Wednesday marked a new spike in activity at Turrialba Volcano. At 1:45 a.m. Thursday the crater began spewing ash and vapor, experts from the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) and the National Seismological Network (RSN) reported.

The spewing of ash, rocks and gases that started Friday at Turrialba Volcano continued almost uninterrupted Monday afternoon, the National University's Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica reported.

Ecuador's president predicted Monday a "considerable" rise in the death toll from a massive earthquake whose tally already included at least 350 lives amid flattened villages along the country's Pacific coast.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – One person died and four others were missing in flooding that hit Haiti, leaving at least 9,600 houses in the deeply impoverished Caribbean country underwater, officials said Monday.