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Japanese Culture Festival
Conference on traditional Japanese music and theater, led by Michiko Hirama, Aug. 24, 1 p.m., Clodomiro Picado Auditorium, UNA, Heredia.

Theater at Noon
Calypso concert by Carlos Saavedra, Aug. 24 at 12:10 p.m., National Theater.

Hiking Trip to Monteverde
With Pico Tours, Sept. 4-5, register by Aug. 24, 2289-6135, picotours@racsa.co.cr.

Recital
By Gabriel Goñi, Ruth Garita and Isabel Jeremías, flute, harp and bassoon, Aug. 24 at 7 p.m., Room 107, School of Music, UCR, San Pedro.

Pedro Guerra in Concert
Rock, Aug. 24, 8 p.m., Melico Salazar Theater, tickets at Librería Internacional stores, www.entradasparatodo.com.

The National Meteorological Institute (IMN) has projected “extremely rainy” conditions from August through October for the Central Valley and the Pacific Slope. The agency predicts that eight cyclones will affect Costa Rica this year, four of which will likely reach hurricane strength.

Meanwhile, intense rainfall in Costa Rica last weekend forced 143 people into shelters, damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes and buildings and possibly killed a 47-year-old mother.

On Monday, rescue crews from the National Emergency Commission (CNE) and the Costa Rican Red Cross searched the canton of Aserrí, a mountain town south of San José, for Damaris Alvarez, a mother of three who was carried away by swelling torrents on Friday afternoon.

According to the Red Cross, Alvarez was waiting out the downpour in a concrete structure when water from a confluence of the Río Cañas rushed in and swept her into the stream.

Rescuers searched for Alvarez throughout the weekend but found no signs of her remains. Red Cross teams continued the search on Monday.

In Corredores, in the country's Southern Zone, 170 homes were flooded by the weekend's cascades. A dam that broke on the Río Claro last week forced 22 people from the zone into temporary shelters, where they remained on Monday. 

The CNE has deployed a team of specialists to repair the dam.

In San Sebastián, a southwest district of San José, the deluges prompted the CNE to move 121 people from the area to a shelter.

According to an analysis by Julio Madrigal, a geologist for the CNE, they cannot return to their homes due to high risks of building collapses and landslides.

The Mixed Institute for Social Aid (IMAS) has agreed to provide financial support to the 121 victims in the shelter and will consider the possibility of renting new homes for the families.

On Monday the Health Ministry evaluated whether to declare the homes in San Sebastián to be uninhabitable.

On Sunday, the CNE issued a green alert, the lowest of the country's three alert levels, for the Central Valley, for Cartago province – east of San José, the southern and northern Pacific zones and for several towns along the Caribbean Slope.

The CNE advised residents in these areas to be aware of the danger of landslides and flash floods.

Autopistas del Sol, the company that built and operates the Caldera Highway, announced on Monday that it will lower tolls on Friday, Aug. 27.

Fees at all four toll booths will drop by an average of ₡ 27.5 (5 U.S. cents). Cars traveling the entire highway will pay a total of ₡ 110 ($0.22) less.

The new tariffs for four-wheel automobiles will be ₡ 290 ($0.57) at the Escazú Plaza, ₡ 430 ($0.85) at the San Rafael toll station, ₡ 570 ($1.13) at the Atenas stop and ₡ 430 ( $ 0.85) in Pozón.

Autopistas del Sol credited the fee drop to the falling price of the U.S. dollar versus the Costa Rican colón, which on Monday was valued at ₡ 506 to the dollar.  

Toll booth fees are revised quarterly to account for the colón's performance against the dollar.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón's call for renewed discussion of alternative ways to counter drug trafficking is catching on regionally, as leaders throughout Central America are joining the debate.

Efforts to counter narcotics were at the center of President Laura Chinchilla's meeting Sunday with José Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), as the two discussed citizen safety issues and regional efforts to reduce crime.

Insulza referenced a change in strategy adopted by the OAS in June, which says that anti-drug policies should focus not just on supply and control, but also on dependence.

The new OAS drug strategy promotes treatment as an alternative to incarceration, Insulza wrote in a June 23 column on the blog Huffington Post. The strategy explicitly recognizes that drug dependency is a chronic, relapsing disease that must be dealt with as a core element of public health policy.”

The policy shift responds to a similar move made by U.S. President Barack Obama the month before in which he called for community-based prevention, expanding treatment and strengthening law enforcement.”

Asked about the legalization of drugs, Insulza responded that whatever action is taken needs to be coordinated so as not to create confusion.”

Chinchilla emphasized that drug use was already de-penalized in Costa Rica, but she reiterated Calderón's insistence that legalization should remain a point of discussion.

“The debate is open in Costa Rica and the whole world,” she said. “This is a debate we should have, but it should be rigorous”.”