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Constant rainfall in the San Jose-Caribbean region caused severe floods and major infrastructure damage in northern and eastern Costa Rica, killing at least two people, officials said Monday.
Two people have died and two more have gone missing, according to the Costa Rican Red Cross. Approximately 3,000 people were forced to evacuate to emergency shelters due to extreme weather, officials said.
Almost a quarter of Costa Rica is declared by the National Emergency Commission (CNE) on floods and landslides, including the northern municipalities of San Carlos, Upara and Guatuso, and the Caribbean Sea of Limon, Matina and Talamanca. Is under. Sarapiqui and Turrialba.
According to Mayor Luis Fernando Leon, Turrialba, 60 km (37 miles) east of San Jose, received a normal amount of rain during July in just one day.
“We weren’t prepared for this scale. This is an extreme event that hasn’t happened since 1978,” Leon told Reuters by phone.
The National Meteorological Research Institute (IMN) said in a weekend statement that the location of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, the rain zone surrounding the Earth, and the humidity carried by the trade winds exacerbated the rain.
By Monday, President Carlos Alvarado said it had rained enough for authorities to provide assistance to some affected areas.
“Rainfall has been reduced, making it easier to work on access to aid and removal of debris and begin to rebuild the health of these communities,” Alvarado said.
IMN predicts additional but moderate rainfall in the Caribbean region and increased rainfall in the central part of the country and on the Pacific slopes.
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