National Emergency Commission on Tuesday reported that 18 communities in the provinces of Limón, Heredia and Cartago are currently isolated by flooding.
The removal of more than 4,000 cubic meters of debris that over the weekend blocked Costa Rica's Route 32 between San José and Limón continued on Monday, with officials from the Public Works and Transport Ministry estimating that transit on the highway would remain closed at least until Tuesday.
The Costa Rican Red Cross issued a statement Saturday afternoon saying that there have been no reported deaths or injuries in the affected areas, but that the rain's intensity could remain the same until at least Monday afternoon.
A noticeable decrease in rainfall prompted National Emergency Commission officials on Thursday to give the green light for hundreds of families in six shelters to return to their homes in the northern and Caribbean regions of Costa Rica.
Crews from the Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) had only begun placing on Tuesday plastic lane dividers on Route 32, the main highway between San José and Limón province. By Thursday morning, Traffic Police reported that several of the dividers already were stolen or vandalized.
On Saturday police will start regulating traffic on a stretch of Route 32, which connects San José and the Caribbean province of Limón, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., after having suspended temporary closures on this highway on Friday.
Prior to the project’s approval by the Legislative Assembly in February various professional and business groups warned that changes to the project would be needed and that those changes would inflate the price tag.
