Rains continue as Costa Ricans search for more bodies

San Jose, Agency
The work of recovering the bodies of mudslide and flood victims continued Friday in Costa Rica despite the constant downpours in a country hit by its worst emergency in years.

The latest official reports indicate that 22 people have died, 12 are missing, 114 communities are affected and some 2,600 people are in temporary shelters, while 135,000 people still have no running water after a water main burst.

At the same time, solidarity campaigns have been launched to try and bring humanitarian aid to a number of communities that have been completely isolated.

A Red Cross spokesperson told Efe that 20 of the 22 victims confirmed up to now lost their lives in a mudslide that buried a neighborhood in the town of San Antonio de Escazu, some 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of San Jose.

Emergency management teams there renewed Friday their search for bodies around 6:00 a.m., the spokesperson said.

The gravity of the situation is such that the local church has become a provisional morgue.

President Laura Chinchilla arrived at the site Friday to check on the damages and express her solidarity with the victims' families.

She also visited a shelter in which some 50 homeless people had taken refuge.

"We feel deeply the pain of so many people, but also the hope provided by people who keep working without thinking of getting any rest or about how tired they are," she said.

But the emergency Costa Rica is going through because of the storm that began Tuesday is so huge that the authorities have had to split up their efforts, since there are a multiplicity of floods up and down the Pacific coast and in many areas of the central valley.

The Public Works and Transport Ministry has reported damage to nine bridges and 58 stretches of national highways, of which "38 are in very critical condition" and their repair will require an investment of close to $60 million.

For their part, the technical teams of the National Emergencies Commission began air and land operations Friday to bring food, medicines and other supplies to villages that have been completely isolated by the mudslides and flooding, especially in the mountains south of San Jose.

Agricultural production was also battered by the weather.

The president of the National Horticultural Corporation, Geovanny Masis, told the press Friday that rains have damaged all the farms in Cartago province, where 80 percent of the country's vegetables are grown.