Little Theatre Group potluck open house
7 p.m., Laurence Olivier Theater, next to Sala Garbo, Av. 2, Ca. 28, 8355-1623, www.littletheatregroup.org.

Folklórico in Guanacaste
Traditional music and dance, 7 p.m., Coopealianza Auditorium, Nicoya; Thursday at 7 p.m., Cenprodeca, Hojancha; Friday at 6 p.m. in UNCADA Auditorium, Las Juntas de Abangares, and 7 p.m., Liberia Central Park.

Yoga and Ayurveda Retreat
Peggy Kelley, founder of the Austin Yoga School , leads a Yoga and Ayurveda Retreat at Luna Lodge on the Osa Peninsula. Today through Sunday, info@austin.org.

Tropical Storm Alma has come and gone, leaving behind it a wake of flooding, destroyed homes, roads and aqueducts, and forcing hundreds of Costa Ricans to take refuge in schools and churches turned relief shelters.

As weather analysts noted the start of the Atlantic hurricane season this weekend, with Tropical Storm Arthur brewing near Belize, Costa Rica is reckoning with damage after Thursday's nasty weather swept in from the Pacific.

Emergency workers reached the last groups of truckers and travelers who for more than 40 hours were stranded atop Cerro de la Muerte, the highest point on Inter-American Highway south, bringing 500 people to safety, according to National Emergency Commission (CNE) spokesman Reinaldo Carballo. He added that aid workers managed to escort away the semitrailer truck drivers who initially refused to leave their vehicles for fear of losing their cargo.

An earlier estimate published in the national press put the number of travelers trapped there at 900, but Carballo told The Tico Times that the figure was just an initial calculation and that no one remains stranded on the Cerro.

The Inter-American Highway is still closed because of blockages and subsidence.

The CNE sent helicopters with food, drinking water, relief supplies and medical staff from the Southern Zone town of San Isidro de El General to residents in communities in the canton of Pérez Zeledón that are isolated because of the highway damage and a collapsed bridge over River General.

Overall, the latest tally of Alma's wreckage, according to emergency officials, includes 117 roads and 22 waterworks systems. A total for wrecked homes and business was not available, but Carballo said 1,500 people are residing in 38 shelters. As many as 20,000 Costa Ricans were directly hit by Alma, whether from flooded residences or workplaces, or being cut off from water or other supplies. Another 55,000 are being “indirectly affected,” meaning that obstacles like caved-in roads and bridges are stopping them from making their regular commute.

No deaths have been reported, said Carballo.

While the Red Cross and CNE provide humanitarian relief, the Transportation Ministry (MOPT) has the task of getting the nation's traffic moving again. “The ministry is working hard to open the national roads that have been affected,” MOPT spokesman Omar Segura told The Tico Times on Friday.

Carballo said CNE is satisfied with its response efforts. “The commission began preparing before the storm hit,” he said. “They had emergency workers studying the protocol around the country. The commission was ready.”

Carballo added that the government has not yet deemed it necessary to seek foreign aid.

He did not give an estimated finishing date for recovery.

“We haven't finished fixing the damage yet from last year – (we're) only 50 or 60 percent of the way done,” said the emergency commission spokesman. “So while we're still recovering from the last season, we're facing the start another hurricane season.”

Soccer fans sounded their car horns and waved purple and white flags down the streets of San José yesterday afternoon after their home team, Deportivo Saprissa, became national champions for the fourth year in a row.

On Alajuela turf, Saprissa beat Liga Deportiva Alajuelense 1-0 with a goal by Michael Barrantes in the 82nd minute.

Saprissa holds the highest number of titles – 27 – in the country, followed by Alajuelense, at 24.

Workers have recovered the “black box” from the TACA jet that ran off the runway and plowed into a street in Honduras Friday morning, killing five people, including Nicaraguan banker Harry Brautigam, president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.

Twenty-three Tico passengers survived the crash, Costa Rican media reported.

Grupo Taca President Roberto Kriete said yesterday he hoped the flight recorder will provide clues to what caused the crash, denying national media reports that the flight had mechanical problems, according to the Associated Press.

“TACA operates 140 days a year under adverse weather conditions in Central America,” Kriete told AP.

In addition to three victims identified Friday – Salvadoran pilot Cesare D'Antonio and two passengers, Brautigam and Jeanne Chantal, wife of the Brazilian ambassador in Honduras – two Honduran university students died in a car that was crushed by the plane.

The plane, carrying 130 people, was on a route from Los Angeles to San Salvador, El Salvador, then to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa and Miami, according to AP.

Honduran taxi driver Gregorio Reyes also survived despite the total destruction of his car that was trapped under the jet's left wing, newswire EFE reported. “I remember I heard a noise. I looked to one side and I saw that the wing of the aircraft was falling on top (of the car). I ducked my head inside the taxi and that saved my life,” Reyes told EFE.

The Toncontin International, in Tegucigalpa – built in 1948 with a runway less than 5,300 feet long – is considered one of the world's more dangerous international airports, and there have been calls for years to replace it.

President Manuel Zelaya said his government will create an airport for commercial jets at a nearby U.S. military airfield to start running within 60 days. Until then, planes will land in San Pedro Sula, about 110 miles north of the capital, he said, according to AP.