by Rod Hughes

Tropical Storm Alma caused extensive flooding and damage to roads and bridges throughout the country and caught the country unprepared. Usually, tropical weather disturbances such as hurricanes develop in the Caribbean and their low pressure troughs draw in wet air from the Pacific that dumps torrential rains on the country.

But, for the first time in history, weathermen say, this storm developed some 50 kilometers off Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. La Nacion reporter Francisco Angulo called Alma “the first made-in-Costa-Rica tropical storm.” It hit the Guanacaste coastline as a clockwise rotating mass of clouds, rain and lightning.

About 9 a.m. yesterday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami raised the tropical depression to the level of the first tropical storm of the year. Nor did it move to the north as Pacific storms often do but to the northeast. Such tropical storms do develop in the Pacific during this time of year but usually strike land farther north at, for instance, the Pacific coast of Mexico.

National weather experts expect strong winds in the northern and central Pacific areas and more rains in the mountains, not discounting the possibility of tornados. But so far no deaths have been reported but material damages from the rains are heavy, reports the National Emergency Committee. Hardest hit was the village of Parrita in Puntarenas province where the streets were turned into swift rivers and 900 persons fled to shelters.

Alma closed the coastal highway in the area and knocked out cell phone and electrical service. Even then, Parrita area homeless were pursued by the storm which caused the collapse of four temporary shelters and the movement of flooding victims to a fifth, a large Evangelical church.

Roads throughout wide areas were closed by 11 landslides. Six bridges in the San Ramon area were damaged. Whole sections of Parrita and its environs were isolated.

by Rod Hughes

We´ll put you out of your misery of suspense quickly. Yesterday’s soccer match between Saprissa and Alajuela to decide the national championship for this season fell victim to the same long, constant rains that turned the village of Parrita into an expensive river yesterday.

It will be played Sunday after the tropical storm has passed over and the natural turf at Morera Soto Stadium in Alajuela has had a chance to dry out. FEDFUT officials, the two coaches and the assigned field officials all trod the gay blades speculatively yesterday but it was clear that the underpinnings were just too soggy.

The fieldkeepers had covered the turf with large expanses of heavy duty plastic for two days in an attempt to encourage persistent downpours off the lush green but all to no avail. Usually in the rainy season, the precipitation ceases for periods to uncover the gress and let it dry but that did not happen this time.

But not only did Tropical Storm Alma postpone the game but it caused discord between the two clubs. At about 9 a.m., Alajuela’s club general manager Jorge Araneda inspected the pitch and pronounced it soft but not puddling. He spoke too soon. An hour later officials braved the downpour and trod the same pitch among the flooded out earthworms, led by referee Walter Quesada, and opined that it was playable and that they had seen worse. That left it up to the two clubs.

Araneda wanted to postpone the match, but Saprissa general manager Mariano Varela wanted the show to go on. The Alajuela reasoned that with a good part of the country under red alert due to the storms that playing at midday made no sense. Finally, the quartet of field officials broke the deadlock. By doing so, they probably avoided drastically reduced attendance and some fans having to catch a passing gondola to get home because the streets were flooded.

by Rod Hughes

Ever wonder why it takes so long to build or rebuild roads and streets in Costa Rica? A report in the daily La Nacion reveals the reasons: inter-agency confusion.

Sometimes, the paper says, the Ministry of Public Works (MOPT) contractors have to wait up to 18 months for the water service (A y A) and the electrical services ICE and National Power and Light, to relocate utilities. The delays are expensive for the government, as well as snarling traffic, because MOPT must pay construction companies penalties for overrunning the length of their contracts. Among the changes that state agencies lag behind in completing before the asphalt or concrete can be poured are moving and re-installing light posts, sewers, electric cables and phone lines.

Example: The 2.5 kilometer stretch of street between the San Jose suburbs of Sand Francisco and La Colina began eight months ago but is still a gravel surface while constructors wait for A y A to install storm sewers. The current rainstorms can’t be doing the unfinished street any good and, indeed, it was originally to be completed this month, before the rains. A y A is also responsible for the non-completion of 1.2 kilometers between San Francisco and Zapote, even though 18 months have passed since construction began.

But not all errors happen because of utility company inefficiency. Take the reconstructed street built between Cartago and Paraiso. After waiting a long time for that street to be repaired, residents in houses on both sides of the street found that they must construct ramps to get their cars out of their garages. Reason: The new street level is much higher than that of the old, potholed thoroughfare. A spokesman for the MECO construction firm shrugs, “That’s the way the MOPT engineers designed it.”

If birds suffered from the same lack of coordination, none of them could fly…