Hurricane Wilma Leaps to
Category 5, Drenches Coast
By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net

The Pacific slope and central mountains have wallowed in the storms on the fringe of Hurricane Wilma since it leaped from category two to category five in just three hours yesterday morning. On Wednesday, meteorologists expected it to strengthen to category two, but it exceeded expectations and has blown rainstorms over the Pacific region from its northwesterly path over the Caribbean toward the U.S. state of Florida.

Emergency officials are braced for flooding in Costa Rica 's lowland and coastal areas, a recurring problem over the last four weeks that has displaced thousands and wreaked millions of dollars of damage.

In just six hours yesterday afternoon, 20- 50 millimeters of rain soaked the Pacific and forecasters expected 20- 40 mm last night, but said the rain would subside temporarily this morning. The Tempisque River in the northern Pacific province of Guanacaste overflowed its banks yesterday afternoon, threatening communities in the region that have been on red alert the last two days.

At press time, no new damages were reported, and more than 2,300 people evacuated throughout the last month remain in temporary shelters while their houses are either underwater, swept away or substantially threatened with flooding. More than 2,000 of those are in Guanacaste, and 300 are from the villages destroyed by floods a month ago on the Pacific coast south of Quepos and Manuel Antonio.

The National Emergency Commission (CNE) has stocked its warehouses in preparation for a possible onslaught of new flood evacuees and sent 60 metric tons of food to its temporary shelters, most of which are in Guanacaste.

It maintains a red alert in the cantons of Bagaces, Carrillo, Santa Cruz, Hojancha, Nandayure, Nicoya and Aguirre, a yellow alert in Abangares, La Cruz, Liberia, Tilarán and Upala, and a green alert in the Caribbean watershed from the mountains to the coast, the Northern Zone and the Central Valley.

Coronel Guillermo Arroyo, National Rescue and Operations Director for the Costa Rican Red Cross, called Wilma's effects here “marginal,” but said he is wary of the continuing rain. If the country is saved from severe flooding, he said, the Red Cross will lend support to its chapters in neighboring countries that have been devastated by storms over the last two weeks.

“We have a group of 20 specialized rescue officials ready to contribute to operations in nearby countries if they suffer massive destruction,” Arroyo said in a statement.

Rescue specialist Carlos Herrera will visit El Salvador to assist victims of past storms, and Red Cross National Telecommunications Chief Arnoldo Alpizar will visit Guatemala to help install a communications network in the storm-afflicted country.

Costa Rica sent a first round of aid to Guatemala and El Salvador last week (TT, Oct. 14).