Flooding around Limon and Moin

Troubling news has reached us from Costa Rica, where heavy rains have been causing floods, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes. Here is the report from our local colleague Ivannia Cambronero:

The heavy rains affecting the Costa Rican Caribbean have forced more than 6,500 people to take refuge in temporary shelters, but there are an estimated 20,000 victims or more in the coastal area and in the northern region of the country, according to figures from the CNE (National Emergency Commission). Until last night relief workers had trouble reaching 116 communities. Some were isolated by rivers and others have no telephone contact. CNE reported damage in 35 thoroughfares and asked not to travel to the area because of the risk. One of the main problems is the lack of drinking water, as most communities are supplied with water from wells.

On Wednesday the government of Costa Rica signed an emergency decree to help the hundreds of displaced ‘limonenses’. The losses in housing, infrastructure and crops have not yet been quantified, but authorities believe them to be worth several millions of dollars because dozens of roads, bridges, dams and other structures are damaged and large agricultural areas were virtually razed by the floods.

The houses of the families we support around the SOS Social Center who live in the extremely poor neighborhood ‘Los Lirios’, in the vicinity of the river, are flooded. The school in Los Lirios also is flooded. We are helping with what infrastructure we have above water.

Despite the heavy rains that have been falling on the province of Limon during the past six days , the villages of Moin and Limon themselves so far have remained stable. Only one of our team's house is flooded and three helpers from San José could not travel to Limon because the state of the roads does not permit it, by any route. Otherwise the resident children and their SOS mothers in Costa Rica are all safe.