An earthquake registering 6 points on the Richter scale was felt throughout half the country.
The epicentre was located 122 kilometres south of Laurel de Corredores, in the Pacific ocean, on the Panama fault.
Javier Pacheco of the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori), explained that the territory is part of the border between the two countries.
The head of the Cruz Roja (Red Cross), Saúl Morales, for the area said that the earthquake shook the area hard, people fearing that their houses would fall on them.
The quake was so strong that it was felt as far as San José and Cartago.
Red Cross: 19 dead, 43 missing after earthquake rocks Costa Rica |
By Alex Leff |
Published: Saturday, 10:41 p.m. CST At least 19 people died in Thursday's 6.2-magnitude quake, the Costa Rican Red Cross reported, putting the death toll four victims above the number confirmed last night by the National Emergency Commission (CNE). Red Cross spokesman Freddy Román said 43 people remain missing in Vara Blanca and Cinchona, two communities hit hard by the quake. This afternoon, the Judicial Investigation Police released names for nine of the dead: Ana María Rodríguez Picado, Yitsi Tatiana Oliva Díaz, Maricela Argüello Díaz, Miguel Arteta Montoya, Roberto Jara Jiménez, Jeremy Alfaro Arias, Roberto Chavez Solis, Edwin Masis Villegas and Fabián Andrés Díaz Solis. More than 2,000 people are living in 23 temporary shelters, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) reported. About 160 of the evacuees are taking shelter in a school in Robles, Heredia, north of San José , after fleeing the nearby community of Los Cartagos, which they said was virtually turned to rubble. William Campos, 51, today told The Tico Times he's worried about the belongings he left behind. Several others expressed the same concern. Evacuees' fears were later confirmed. At 8:30 p.m., the Public Security Ministry said two men had been arrested carrying jewelry and cash stolen from victims' empty homes in Vara Blanca, in Heredia. In Heredia, Black Hawk helicopters flew overhead. Police officer Manuel Portugués, who was keeping watch over the Robles shelter, said the helicopters were carrying victims' bodies to a morgue. The choppers were some of the four on loan for Costa Rica 's relief effort from the United States and Colombia , CNE said. Thousands of residents are cut off from drinking water. As with the death toll, however, total counts vary greatly. After the daily La Nación today reported 76,000 people were without water, by 3:30 p.m. CNE said, citing water authorities, the number was 7,900. Passage through several roads, including from Poás Volcano to Vara Blanca and from Cinco Esquinas to Los Cartagos, has been at least partially restored. Several roads, however, remain impassible, including from San Isidro de Alajuela to Fraijanes, from Vara Blanca to Montaña Azul and Cinchona, and from Cinchona to Angel waterfalls. At 9 p.m., Román of the Red Cross said 819 people are still trapped by damaged roads and bridges. |
| Public, private crews assisting victims |
Published: Friday, 12:50 a.m. CST POASITO � Emergency crews scrambled to reach and rescue thousands of stranded residents and hundreds of trapped tourists after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Costa Rica Thursday, killing at least 15 people. The National Emergency Commission (CNE), the Red Cross and the National Police were coordinating rescue efforts in the communities surrounding the quake's epicenter, 10 kilometers east of Poás Volcano. Located about 35 kilometers northwest of San José, Poás Volcano is the most-visited national park in Costa Rica . The rescue efforts have been mostly aimed at residents and tourists stranded by landslides, collapsed homes and damaged roads. Private and government helicopters rescued small groups of people throughout the day, while those that could, hiked out, sometimes for hours, to reach aid. Government helicopters were sent in Thursday afternoon and flew all day Friday to evacuate injured residents, as well as women, children and tourists. According to CNE, at least 250 people were airlifted Friday from 63 different sites, with at least 25 people going to hospitals. Tourism Minister Ricardo Benavides said Friday that emergency agencies were awaiting U.S. military Blackhawk helicopters, which were scheduled to arrive later in the afternoon. In the nearby town of Poasito , emergency officials created a staging ground, receiving people from the helicopter flights and sheltering at least 100 people in tents and the backs of cargo trucks. Arriving tourists found rides where they could back to hotels, while hundreds of locals were sent to temporary shelters and tent camps in the nearby area. Many residents of Poasito spent the day pulling their belongings from the cracked and buckled remains of their homes, unsure what comes next. Meanwhile, between 150 and 200 tourists were reported to be stranded in the Vara Blanca area near the popular La Paz Waterfall Gardens . �We believe about 150 tourists have left the affected area by foot,� Tourism Minister Ricardo Benavides said. Accounts from tourists that made it out described the elaborate and renowned gardens as �totally destroyed,� and the hotel as seriously damaged. Many of those airlifted out of La Paz arrived at the Tobias Bolaños Airport in Pavas, in western San José , on privately chartered helicopter flights. Charter company Aerobell was charging $1,600 to airlift groups of five people from Vara Blanca to the Tobías Bolaños Airport , in the western San José district of Pavas, said Melissa Cervantes, an Aerobell representative, on Friday. The airport was temporarily closed after a fire gutted a CNE warehouse with emergency supplies at 2:15 p.m. Aerobell airlifted about 30 people Friday morning, Cervantes said. Another charter company, Aerotour, was also reported to be running paid rescue missions. A group of thirty-one French tourists were being rescued throughout the day at a cost of $7,415 for eight helicopter trips, said Natalí Vermerien, a coordinator for the tourist group who stood at the Tobias Bolaños airport with a small sign reading, �Gruope Leutard.� �Everyone in the group is OK,� Vermerien said. �They are going to continue their trip through Costa Rica because, thank God, nobody was hurt.� As of 2 p.m., the majority of the tourists arriving at the Tobías Bolaños Airport had been taken there by private charters. Arnoldo Sanauria, an official with the Red Cross coordinating airport arrivals, said the charter companies were going to begin working for the government conducting rescues after 1 p.m. A group of Dutch tourists that walked out of the La Paz Waterfall Gardens said someone they believe to be working for the charter companies was charging stranded tourists $400 per person for a ride out. �They took the wounded and women on children, but only on one or two flights, and the rest had to pay a lot of money,� said Laura Muijsers, one of the tourists. Benavides said he was aware of the private lifts but said the injured were considered priority. Sanauria, of the Red Cross, said that the government had 3 helicopters, which were flying the wounded to hospitals in the area. About 9 helicopters, he said, were flying tourists to the Bolaños airport Friday morning. At noon today, CNE and other emergency and government agencies met to determine where more airlifts were needed. According to Benavides, two private companies were hired to continue airlifts out of the affected region. CNE hired Aerobell to aid the remaining stranded residents and tourists. Tico Times reporters Leland Baxter-Neal, Holly K. Sonneland, Vanessa I. Garnica, Patrick Fitzgerald contributed to this story. |
| Ticos and tourists cope with disaster |
By Meagan Robertson |
Published: Friday, 12:32 a.m. CST POASITO, Alajuela � While Costa Ricans who evacuated their homes after Thursday's magnitude 6.2 earthquake were doing their best to cope, some tourists were shaken up after spending the night in parking lots and buses with no idea of when help was coming � and paying out of their own pockets when it did. Walter Holmes, of the U.S. state of Virginia , was in the restaurant of the La Paz Waterfall Gardens Hotel, located in Vara Blanca, the closest town to the quake's epicenter, eating lunch when the quake hit Thursday at 1:15 p.m. CST. �The restaurant simply exploded,� he said, �I didn't even have time to get scared.� Holmes and his wife were among 300 tourists trapped overnight in the luxury eco-resort at the base of the scenic Poás Volcano when landslides cut off roads in and out of the luxury eco-resort. The couple spent the night in a bus in the hotel's parking lot, where they scoured the hotel's ruins for supplies before they were evacuated in a helicopter the next day. "We scrounged up enough chips and food for the night," said Holmes in a phone interview from the Herradura Hotel in San José after being evacuated. Holmes, 66, had visited Costa Rica as part of a cruise tour. Howard and Cathy Moore, from Orange County, California, were on a sightseeing day trip to the Poás Volcano when the earthquake hit. They, too, found themselves stranded with the hotel guests and little idea of what was happening. �All we heard was lies, lies, lies,� said Mr. Moore. �(The hotel staff) told us we would get some food at 3 p.m., and then there was no food. � They told us we would get blankets when it got dark, then there were no blankets. � Then they told us the army was coming to pick us up in the morning, and all we had were news stations and photographers.� Costa Rica has no army, however, since the military was abolished in 1949. The Moores spent the 24 hours after the earthquake outside with almost nothing to eat and little water, they said, while helicopters swirled above, landed and apparently gave government officials tours of the disaster's aftermath, but didn't pick them up. In the end, they ended up being charged $300 each by a private helicopter company to fly out to a nearby relief camp in the community of Poasito. Nazario Llinarez, a Spanish tourist from the town of Alta, said he and companion Vicenta Ferrandiz found shelter on a tour bus during the night. The two had been walking near one of the water falls when �everything started to come down around us.� Ferrandiz said at least 200 tourists were stranded along with them, including families with children. �We had no type of information, not from anybody,� Llinarez said. Roberthe Margarithe, a visitor from southern France , said he spent the night on the highway near the hotel under a plastic trash bag to keep off the rain, and only a banana to eat. Carlos Benavides, director of the Costa Rican Tourism Board, said that all the La Paz Waterfall Garden Hotel's guests were accounted for and without any serious injuries. The large Poasito camp, 10 kilometers from the volcano, was one of many refuges set up in open fields by small towns in the affected areas in the Bosques de Fraijanes and Poás region, northwest of San José . Ticos and other stranded tourists did their best in the situation at the Poasito camp, making fires to keep warm and using tarps to ward off the rain. There were also tents, an improvised helicopter landing area and temporary shelters. Newly rescued Ticos and tourists arrived by all-terrain vehicles and helicopter and were greeted by two medical teams, of the six teams working throughout affected areas. Regional Health Director of Poás, Gilberth Arias who oversees the half dozen medical squads, had been there since 6 a.m., when workers reportedly had 73 injured on the premises. Helicopters and ATVs have made the search for missing people more efficient, but operations are far from running smoothly. �I know there are still people trapped, and we need to get them out of there as soon as possible,� said Arias, as a helicopter landed behind him. Lorena Morales sat at another camp in Dulce Nombre de San Isidro in her makeshift home, made of tarps and string, watching her son play soccer with other boys. Despite being forced from their homes and living outside, the atmosphere was not one of misery. �We had to get out of the house because it was too dangerous, and there was no point after the earthquake in going back in � no electricity, no water, and everything we own in ruins,� said Morales, recounting the previous day's events. �So we've been here, and everyone I know is fine, thank God.� Water was distributed to families in the area Friday afternoon. Most people had gone without water since the earthquake. Luis Arce was one of the many distributors making their way through the area. Despite his own losses � broken television, motorcycle, lights and plates � he was trying to help out the people in his area. "It's been really hard � but all we can do is make the best of it, right?� Tico Times reporters Blake Schmidt and Leland-Baxter Neal contributed reporting to this story. |
| Relief supplies perish in warehouse blaze |
| By Holly K. Sonneland Tico Times Staff |
Published: Friday, 5 p.m. CST A sudden fire Friday destroyed much needed emergency supplies for the ongoing relief effort to rescue and shelter residents and tourists stranded by Thursday's magnitude 6.2 earthquake. A National Emergency Commission (CNE) supply warehouse caught fire near the Tobías Bolaños Airport in Pavas, west of San José , where evacuated foreign tourists were arriving after being rescued by helicopter. CNE workers had been building an expansion to the warehouse, located just down the hill from the airport and CNE main offices, when sparks from a welder ignited one of the polyurethane foam mattresses being stored there. No one was injured, but the warehouse was gutted within five minutes, said one of the CNE workers who was in the warehouse when the fire started. The warehouse contained food, lamps, power saws and bedding � all lost. CNE President Daniel Gallardo said the warehouse was one of the commission's three permanent ones, along with other temporary storage units. He did not have an estimate for the value of the destroyed supplies. �We lost a very important warehouse, but they're things that we've already started to replace,� Gallardo said. President Oscar Arias and other government representatives were meeting with emergency officials in the CNE offices at the top of the hill at the time of the fire and were quickly escorted from the grounds. |
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