There are not homes and condos for tourists right by the beach in Playas del Coco, unlike Tamarindo. In the Playas del Coco area, people have built houses in the hills to take advantage of the views of the ocean, as you can see in this photo.Sadly, I must report that sometimes building houses in the hills can have tragic consequences, although I certainly do not think that would happen with the the hillside houses overlooking the beach at Playas del Coco.
Just after midnight on Thursday there was a horrific mudslide/landslide in Escazu, a mountainside suburb of San Jose in the central valley area of Costa Rica. The newspaper yesterday reported that 20 people are dead and 10 are missing. The nation has declared its highest level state of emergency and is mobilizing is disaster relive resources.
Costa Rica has a National Emergency Commission. It and the police, firefighters and Red Cross have mobilized to search for people trapped in homes that have been buried in mud. Costa Rica does not have any military. In other countries, the army comes out with helicopters and other resources to assist, but Costa Rica does not have an army with helicopters to deliver relief supplies during catastrophes such as this. Neighboring countries and the USA sometimes help. Costa Rica has a national disaster relief fund to help in these situations.
The mudslides were caused by 161 mm (6.3 inches) of rain on Wednesday night from a tropical storm. Yesterday was scheduled to be the national Social Studies Exit Exams for all high school students in the country, but the Education Ministry suspended the exams for the entire country so that people can focus on this emergency.
Tomorrow, I will show an example of the type of condos that are popular in this area.
This week we are showing photos of the fjords of Norway on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.
Our condolences to the people of Costa Rica.
ReplyDeleteSo sad to hear about the mudslides near San Jose.
ReplyDeleteThe homes in your photo look pretty solid from this view point. I think I see a condo building at the top of this hill to the far right of the photo.
the hillside views should be nice. it is sad what happened near San Jose, a rather long ways from the Guanacaste region where this beach is. I hope the people in the San Jose area are managing ok. Natural disasters wreak such havoc on infrastructure and families
ReplyDeleteThis scene is just lovely!
ReplyDeleteThe landslide is tragic and shocking! I am so sorry to hear about such an awful thing.