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Published: February 9th 2009
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Here in Costa Rica we have experienced our 2nd significant earthquake in 2 days … I personally experienced the 4.0 magnitude yesterday while in the bathroom (tell me you didn’t just smile) and today's 6.2 magnitude while standing on a ladder helping my next-door neighbor secure a kitchen cabinet to a wall above a fridge. The ride on the ladder was more fun, but the ride on the porcelain was definitely more humorous.
We were fortunate with just getting a good long & strong shaking … close but no damage. Others unfortunately did not do so well.
Summary as of 9:00am, 01/19/09 At 1:22pm on Wednesday January 8th, 2009 the reported most severe Costa Rica earthquake in 120 years resulted in 23 confirmed deaths, approximately 7 still missing, over 300 injuries as well as extensive damage to buildings, homes and roads ... the area known as La Cinchona de Sarapiquí, in Alajuela, has been completely destroyed.
Monetary aid has come in from around the world but more is still needed. 346 homes were destroyed completely, another 478 homes were damaged, 2,000 people remain in emergency shelters - many with no home or job to return to. The Ministerio
de Vivienda (Housing Ministry) estimates that it will be necessary to build some 500 new homes in the earthquake affected area.
Many of the missing may never be found because thousands of tons of rock and dirt rained down on some areas.
The most affected areas are located in the provinces of Alajuela, San José, Cartago and Heredia, as well as in areas in the Guapiles and Caribbean communities. The quake was felt throughout the entire country of Costa Rica at varying strengths.
Thousands of people in buildings small and large in the Costa Rica capital of San José took the streets when the city began shaking and rolling. Traffic was brought to a stand still as concrete and glass from buildings littered some downtown streets.
Two little girls, Marisela Argüello and Tatiana Bolívar, agedn 11 and 7, were swallowed up by the mudslides as they walked along the main road in Fraijanes. Another young victim, Ana María Rodríguez, only 12 years of age, was buried alive in her house, a distance of only 800 metres from where Marisela and Tatiana met their fate.
According to reports from the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa
Rica (OVSICORI), the tremor had a magnitude of 6.2 degrees at its epicenter 10 kilometers east of San Pedro de Poas, Alajuela, at a depth of 30 kilometers - only 10 kilometers Northeast of one of Costa Rica's most active and popular volcanoes, Volcán Poás.
The same area had another earthquake the previous day of Wednesday, January 7 at a magnitude of 4.0 degrees and The Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (CNE) - national emergency commission - declared a red alert in the provinces described and reported at least 1,000 people were trapped with no road access, the roadway being completed wiped out by landslides and tremors, and the only access to them being by helicopters.
The CNE has called for and received the help of the US armed forces for the use of their helicopters stationed in Honduras as well as owners of private helicopters to assist with the evacuations of both local residents and tourists - so about 200 tourists took a helicopter ride after brief vacation interruptions.
Security minister, Janina Del Vecchio inserted of 600 police personnel to maintain order and coordinate with the different aspects of public security delegations. Karla González, Minister of
Costa Rica
www.CostaRicaBlogger.com Public Works and Transport (MOPT) warned of domestic route failures in Alfaro Ruiz and that the road to the Poas Volcano is partially closed.
Major damage is located in the area of Fraijanes (the village on the road from Alajuela to Volcán Poás). Long-term destruction was caused on the road between Heredia and Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui, specifically between Los Cartagos (before Vara Blanca) and San Miguel/Cariblanco.
In Alajuela's La Cinchona de Sarapiquí vehicles are overturned or buried, houses completely destroyed, telephone and light posts are lying on the ground, cables are strewn all over and the road has been totally torn apart by the tremors. The only way to get in and out of Cinchona is by helicopter. The roads are littered with abandoned cars. The houses are completely open, no one living in them anymore. The faces of the survivors upon evacuation showed tiredness and desperation on losing everything.
Many visitors to the Waterfall Gardens had been cut off due to the exit roads being blocked to the south (Heredia) and erased to the north (Sarapiqui). Most being tourists from the United states, Canada, France, Spain and other countries. Helicopters airlifted the stranded tourists, residents
and workers towards Central Valley emergency posts. Access from the Central Valley to the Waterfall Gardens could be possible as soon as obstructions have been cleared.
Damage to the Heredia-Sarapiqui road is of such proportions that passage in a near future will be impossible do to whole sections having virtually disappeared in massive landslides. The Angel factory (a manufacturer of jams & marmalades) near Cariblanco has been reduced to sitting on an island without access from any direction. There will probably not be any passage to the facility for years to come.
Gonzalez also noted that the Juan Santamaria International Airport was aclosed for inspection but had resumed flights as normal and the Dam at Carilblanco has fissures but is considered safe at this time.
In addition; a Volcán Poás team of students from England, their teachers and some volcanologists that were in the volcano crater at the time of the earthquake are safe. Waterfall La Paz has over 100 tourists trapped there with only MUD flowing over the falls and several tourists had been injured, but none reported seriously. In La cinchona a bus fell into the cave in. Fortunately all of the passengers can live
to tell their story, albeit banged up some.
This earthquake was caused by existing tectonic faults, not an erupting Poas Volcano as was rumored early on by some sources. Although the earthquake's intensity was officially a 6.2 magnitude, the damages at the epicenter were as if it was an 8.0 magnitude.
There have been over 1500 aftershocks of intensities from 2.0 to 4.0 on the Richter scale.
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