By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

At least two people are dead and 10 are missing in the town of Atenas, northwest of San José, after a landslide yesterday buried six houses.

In Fátima de Atenas, Red Cross workers are working with the National Emergency Commission (CNE) and the Firefighters' Corps to clear the rubble and search for those trapped underneath it.

The National Emergency Commission (CNE) yesterday declared a red alert for the central Pacific areas of Parrita, Garabito and Puntarenas and the Central Valley coffee town of Atenas. Floods washed over more than 800 houses in these areas and along the Pacific coast, according to CNE spokesman Reinaldo Carballo. At least 400 people in the central Pacific and Atenas are in temporary shelters.

The commission has placed the rest of the country under a yellow alert, except the Caribbean coast, which is under a green alert. Residents should remain alert of water levels and have an evacuation plan in the event of flooding.

This week's steady rains and unusually rainy mornings were the result of a low-pressure system over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula blowing precipitation over Costa Rica. The system was expected to begin to diminish yesterday, but in its place a tropical storm is brewing over Panama that will likely bring more heavy rain to Costa Rica's Pacific coast this weekend, Carballo said.

Two of the roads blocked earlier this week by landslides are now clear. The road running south from San José to the Southern Zone canton of Pérez Zeledón and the road connecting the mountain town of Tarbaca, south of San José, with Río Conejo have been cleared and are open to traffic. However, the Vuelta de Jorco road, also south of San José, remains blocked, according to Ministry of Public Works and Transport spokesman Juan Carlos González.