IL Postcard

Predictions of Disastrous Weather Come to Naught

Date: 08/22/2007

Unlike Mexico and parts of the Caribbean, Costa Rica was spared intense weather and possible flooding expected from Hurricane Dean.

Last Saturday, Costa Rica's Comisión Nacional de Emergencias (National Emergency Commission, or CNE) issued a Yellow Alert for much of Costa Rica's Pacific coast, and a less imperative Green Alert for the Atlantic coast, Central Valley and Northern Zone, as intense rain began to pound those regions of the country.

Costa Rica's emergency alert system goes from green (which stands for informar, or "just informing the public"), to yellow (for alistar, or "get ready"), to red ( evacuar, or "evacuate").

Despite the low-level warning, Costa Rica's Caribbean coast was battered Sunday night by unusually large waves-some as tall as six feet-that damaged a tourist boardwalk along the beach and National Coast Guard infrastructure.

Officials said the waves were a result of the high-speed winds produced by Dean, whose landfall on Mexico's Caribbean coast was reported as the third most powerful of any hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, according to the National Hurricane Center. Dean was a category 5 at landfall, the highest intensity level on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

However, by Sunday, clouds off the Pacific coast had disappeared, giving many along that coastline one of the nicest days in recent memory-and a beautiful sunset.

And though heavy rains fell on Monday and Tuesday, officials said they were typical of Costa Rica's rainy season, and no major flooding or injuries were reported.

Your Latin America Insider,

Suzan Haskins
for International Living

P.S. Costa Rica's usually mild weather is just one of the many reasons to check out this Central American country. Interested in living and prospering here?