Costa Rican emergency workers, with the help of the Colombian Air Force personnel and four helicopters on loan from Colombia and the United States, dug deeper into the devastated town of Cinchona, north of San José, yesterday searching for bodies after Thursday's 6.2 magnitude earthquake.

The death toll fluctuated wildly, depending on the source, but the Red Cross pegged it at least 19.

That number will almost certainly rise as the National Emergency Commission (CNE) yesterday said 89 people were still missing yesterday, three days after the quake hit.

Four Canadians reported missing by Canada's news media, however, are OK, Canadian Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Daniel Barbarie told The Tico Times.

Workers repaired drinking water lines for 98 percent of the province of Alajuela, northwest of San José, according to the Costa Rican Water and Sewage Institute (AyA). But some 3,900 people in the province remained without potable water, particularly in San Ramón de la Virgen and Dulce Nombre de San Isidro, AyA said.

CNE reported 218 homes were damaged but those do not include residences in Cinchona or Vara Blanca and Los Cartagos, which were totally evacuated.

Almost 2,500 people are living in 21 shelters around Heredia and Alajuela provinces.

William Campos, 51, who narrowly escaped from his crumbling home with his wife and son, is worried about looters. Several others with him taking shelter at a school in Roble, Heredia, expressed the same concern.

Evacuees' fears were later confirmed. On Saturday, the Public Security Ministry said, two men had been arrested carrying jewelry and cash stolen from victims' empty homes in Vara Blanca, in Heredia.

Stay tuned for online updates, and see Friday's print or digital edition for more earthquake coverage and analysis.