Flooding Displaces Hundreds
by Rod Hughes
“Well, didn’t it rain, chillun?” goes the old black spiritual song and Costa Ricans have good reason to sing it.
Torrential rainfall has driven 1,600 persons from their homes into emergency shelters, damaged or destroyed 2,000 houses, knocked out 22 bridges and badly damaged 27 roads in this country. And the bad news is that the rains will continue into mid-Novermber in a wet season longer and wetter than usual.
The Guanacaste province town of Filadelfia, one of the most frequently inundated towns in the country, is again flooded by the Tempisque River. When this happens, the townsfolk look out over the vast desolation of water and term it “Lake Tempisque.” But nine days of heavy rains have affected a dozen other population centers in Guanacaste’s lowlands. And on the Nicoya Peninsula where Filadelfia is located, almost all the area is lowland.
President Oscar Arias has promised to sign a decree to speed aid to those affected. But damage to crops and infastructure will take time and money to compensate for the losses. Guanacaste province is a major rice, fruit, vegetable and cattle producing region, vital to keep food prices stable. And other areas of the country are affected as well. The inland town of Atenas lost 15 of its inhabitants to a landlide that covered seven homes. Five of those, most certainly dead, have not been found and rescuers who finally gave up digging, fear that the bodies were carried into the Cacao River and swept away, never to be found. Some flooding has also hit the Central Valley population centers.
In the town of Parrita, near Puntarenas, residents returned to shovel mud out of their homes but the National Emergency Commission has warned that the river waters may rise again. Three emegency shelters remain open there.
Even travel and tourism have been affected with 29 flights from and to Juan SantamarĂa International Airport near the capital cancelled by fog and heavy rains between Sunday and Tuesday.