Earthquake leaves at least 3 dead in Costa Rica
By Leland Baxter-Neal and Alex Leff
Tico Times Staff | lbaxter@ticotimes.net | aleff@ticotimes.net TT reader Hugo Vega sent in this photograph of a traffic light bouncing in Alajuela, in one of the areas hit hard by yesterday's earthquake. Post your quake pictures in our
Reader Photo Gallery.
Photo courtesy of Hugo Vega
At least three people, all children, were killed dead and more than 300 injured when a 6.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Costa Rica's populous Central Valley yesterday afternoon.
Two sisters, ages 4 and 7, died after being buried under a landslide triggered by the earthquake in Cinchona, in the province of Alajuela, northwest of San José, Red Cross spokesman Freddy Roman said. A third girl, age 12, died in a separate landslide in the vicinity.
At least 42 communities were hard hit, and evacuations in many were carried out into the evening.
Some 300 people remained stranded at a hotel in Vara Blanca, a town at the base of Poás Volcano, according to the National Emergency Commission (CNE).
The tremor's epicenter was 10 kilometers east of the volcano and 6 kilometers below the Earth's surface, according to the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI). Poás is Costa Rica's most-visited national park.
CNE put the greater metropolitan area of San José on a red alert as emergency teams were arriving to the area more than two hours after the 1:19 p.m. (CST) quake. About 1,000 aftershocks were recorded in seven hours after the 6.2 quake. Many were strong enough to be felt.
The earthquake is the biggest felt in recent years in the Central Valley. People poured from their homes and office buildings as the ground shook. A tremor measuring 4.0 originated in the same area Tuesday morning and was felt in San José but caused no damage.
A quake of 6.2 was registered in Costa Rica's Southern Zone Nov. 26, according to Walter Jiménez, of OVSICORI.
Jiménez warned that further quakes should be expected in the coming days, but he could not estimate their magnitude.
Karla González, head of the Public Transportation Ministry told Channel 7 that her office is investigating possible damage to a dam on the Río Blanco River in Sarapiquí, on the Caribbean slope.
President Oscar Arias called for calm. Our country has a long history of seismic activity and the events that occurred this afternoon, though tragic, are part of the normal behavior of a land such as ours, which, because of its location and geological conditions, is prone to constant tremors at different magnitudes, the president said in a statement.
Arias is scheduled to visit affected areas this morning.
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