Costa Rica’s luck holds with latest tropical storms
and wire service reports
The long arm of Ernesto did little damage to Costa Rica, and the country barely felt the presence of Pacific Tropical Storm John, which was 250 miles or 400 kms. southeast of Acapulco earlier today.
The country’s emergency commission reported that some houses in Heredia suffered wind damage Sunday from Ernesto. In Santa Domingo two homes lost their roofs, said the Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias. In Calle Quintana de Santo Domingo one home was flooded by a sewer backup. Trees were down.
There was a landslide in Barrio La Milpa where a home suffered damage to its roof from shifting soil, the commission said. In Tibás a home faced danger from a slide caused by the weight or a nearby factory, the commission said. The residents slept with family elsewhere.
There was some flooding, and the commission was cautious.
But the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional was downright happy: “Ernesto is not now a danger to the county,” it said in a press release late Monday. The weather experts promised sunny skies this morning with afternoon downpours in the Valley Central and the Pacific coast. The northern zone and the Caribbean slope are supposed to be rain-free with lots of heat.
Ernesto was nearing the northern coast of Cuba. It still was a tropical storm with sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph). It was expected to hit the Florida keys by this evening. Some five to 10 inches of rain are possible over southern Florida, said the hurricane center.
The center says the storm will be moving over the Caribbean island nation for most of the day Monday with winds of 72 kph, well short of hurricane strength. Authorities in Cuba evacuated tens of thousands of residents Sunday.
The storm is on a path that is expected to take it across Cuba toward the Gulf of Mexico, where it could become a hurricane for a second time. It drenched Haiti and the Dominican Republic Sunday at hurricane strength, leaving at least one person dead in Haiti.
Residents in the Florida Keys are bracing for Ernesto. The National Hurricane Center has posted a hurricane watch for the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula, including the Keys and the Miami area.
The U.S. national Hurricane Center said early today that John was nearing hurricane strength in the Pacific. The storm was expected to drop up to four inches on the Mexican coast, something forecasters said was life-threatening.