Extreme flooding caused by El Niño washed poisonous snakes downriver in northern Argentina, forcing authorities to close beaches to summer holidaymakers.
High tides are expected starting Tuesday along Costa Rica's Pacific coast. Experts say they'll come with big waves and, combined with rain, could cause flooding.
The highest tides of the year along Costa Rica’s Pacific coast flooded hundreds of homes in the early hours of Tuesday and Wednesday, mostly in Puntarenas province.
Reports from the National Emergency Commission said that 1,585 homes were lost to flooding. Currently 745 people are living in 12 emergency shelters with the majority in Matina, Limón, and Sarapiquí, Heredia, where 380 and 342 people are temporarily housed, respectively.
Conditions creating tall and powerful waves are expected to intensify again on Wednesday along the northwestern Pacific coast and in the Caribbean province of Limón, the University of Costa Rica's Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Limnology (CIMAR) reported.
Two Canadian tourists identified by the Red Cross in Puntarenas as Andrea Bell, 70, and 2-year-old Jasmine Rodríguez Olching drowned on Monday afternoon at Playa Hermosa, a northern Pacific beach in Cóbano, on Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula.
