Rains Make Already Bad Roads Worse

The heavy rains that have pounded Costa Rica for the last two months have caused approximately $33 million in damages to the country's roadways, according to Minister of Public Works and Transport Randall Quirós.

“We are passing through the worst highway crisis this country has had to suffer in the last 30 years,” Quirós told Radio Monumental yesterday. “We have 173 national highways and 749 local roads affected by the excess of rain in the last two months from Hurricanes Katrina, Stan, Rita and Wilma.”

The minister said that, according to preliminary calculations, the losses amount to ¢16 billion ($33 million); the government only has a third of that amount available at present.

Quirós said that the government is studying “how we will enter into this rehabilitation” and hopes to start repairs this week.

For its part, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) released a statement yesterday saying that this week will bring an improvement in the weather. The constant rains registered over the past weekend because of the indirect influence of Hurricane Wilma provoked the preventative evacuation of 767 people.

According to the statement, during the weekend CNE attended to “close to 80 incidents of problems with sewers, mudslides and rivers overflowing in the greater metropolitan area and the length of the Pacific slope.”

Because of the rains, several people remain out of communication due to the fact that sections of the highway are obstructed.

The CNE is still on red alert (maximum) in Bagaces, Carrillo, Santa Cruz and Nicoya in the northwest province of Guanacaste, as well as the municipality of Aguirre in the central Pacific province of Puntarenas.

They also issued a yellow alert (signaling preventative action with activation of emergency committees) in the country's Northern Zone and a green alert (preventative action) for the Caribbean slope, parts of the Northern Zone and the Central Valley, although an improvement of the weather is expected starting today.

– ACAN-EFE