Good news came yesterday to some of the families devastated by recent flooding when the Mixed Institute of Social Aid (IMAS) handed out ¢60 million ($116,279) to help them get new housing.

Sixty families in the coffee town of Atenas, northwest of San José, were selected to receive these funds because of the difficult economic situations they're facing after losing their homes and everything in them, according to a statement from IMAS.

In the western suburb of Santa Ana, which was also hit by floods this week, officials are assessing families' situations to see which are most in need of government help.

To the northwest in the Guanacaste province, IMAS workers are taking censuses at temporary shelters, where hundreds remain unable to return to their homes, to determine the level of damage and how to distribute aid.

The eastern province of Cartago, which was severely affected earlier this month by floods, saw a new wave of water yesterday in the sectors of El Guarco, El Alto de Ochomogo, La Lima and Quircot, according to a statement from the National Emergency Commission (CNE).

The commission maintains a red alert for the central Pacific canton of Parrita as well as the Guanacaste cantons of Hojancha, Nandayure, Nicoya, Santa Cruz, Carrillo, Liberia and Santa Cruz, while the rest of the country is under a yellow alert except for the Caribbean province of Limón, which is under a green, preventive alert.

-Tico Times