SALGAR, Colombia – Residents of the Colombian town hit by a massive landslide began a difficult clean-up Tuesday, as rescuers resumed the increasingly hopeless search for those still missing after a disaster that claimed at least 64 lives.
Based on Monday's inspection results, OVSICORI’s experts will decide whether some of the 84 telecommunications towers on Irazú need to be relocated to safer ground.
Faced with the threat of continued heavy rains and a dramatic weekend of landslides that left thousands of motorists stranded, Costa Rican highway officials decided to play it safe and close the main route linking San José with the Caribbean coast on Wednesday. But transit has returned to normal today, after officials reopened the route at 6 a.m. this morning.
As heavy rains continue to fall in Costa Rica, highway officials have ordered Route 32 to be closed as of 2 p.m. on Wednesday. The main highway through the Braulio Carrillo National Park and connecting San José with the Caribbean coast will remain closed for at least a day, officials said. Officials also are evaluating the possible closure of Route 27 to the central Pacific coast.
The mountainous Route 32 to the Caribbean coast reopened over the weekend to normal traffic following an unprecedented natural disaster involving at least 40 landslides that trapped thousands of motorists for eight hours last Thursday night and Friday morning. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured.
A harrowing Thursday evening continued into early Friday morning for hundreds of motorists trapped on the Braulio Carrillo Highway that connects San José to the Caribbean port city of Limón. Heavy rains triggered multiple landslides that stranded 380 people for hours in the dark and rain.
Officials of the National Emergency Commission (CNE) confirmed that a mudslide on Thursday night partially blocked the Sarapiqui River in north-central Costa Rica.
