High seas along Pacific
trigger emergency alert


The Pacific coast is being hit with the highest tides in the last five years, said the national emergency commission, which declared an alert.

One swimmer already has been swept away by the high seas and is presumed dead.

The Pacific is invading low areas along the coast.  The alert is in effect until Thursday, and the time of the highest tides is computed to be Tuesday about 5:17 p.m.

The Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias said that the seas may be 10 feet or more higher than normal.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said that the condition is general throughout the Pacific. At the Gulf of Papagayo 20-knot winds were reported creating seas about eight feet higher than normal. The center said that the northeast to east winds were likely to increase over the next 24 hours producing seas up to 10 feet higher.

Elsewhere seas were up to 13 feet higher. A cold front is believed to be the source of the strong winds.

Some Pacific sites of concern by officials in Guanacaste are Cuajiniquil, Junquillal, Nosara and Sámara. In the Provincia de Puntarenas, the concerns are for Barrio El Carmen and the coastal area of Puntarenas Centro, Caldera, Playa Azul at the mouth of the Río Grande de Tárcoles, Playa Hermosa, Palo Seco, Playa Bejuco, Isla Damas and Quepos. These are areas that have experienced problems in the past under similar conditions.

The same windy conditions that are creating high seas also will make today nearly cloudless in the northern Pacific and Central Valley, said the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional. Some rain is predicted in the mountains and some clouds in the northern zone and the Caribbean coast where showers also are possible.


More than 150 earthquakes
registered in seven days


From Jan. 23 through Friday some 151 earthquakes less than 5.2 magnitude have hit the southern zone of Costa Rica, according to the Obvservatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica. Most were not detectable by humans.

Nearly all of the quakes in this area are a product of the Coco tectonic plate interacting with the microplate or block of Panamá, said the observatory based at Universidad Nacional.

This also is the area where a 6.5 quake took place early Christmas Day 2003. This quake caused some homes to collapse and some public buildings were damaged.

In 2009 the observatory said that a quake in this area March 11 registered 6.3 and the next day a 6.5 quake followed.

The latest quakes in the area were southwest of Laurel de Corredores, and there were no injuries reported.

The most recent quakes were not a product of the collision of plates. Thursday at 1:10 p.m. a 4.6 quake took place a mile east of  Los Angeles de Barva, Heredia, and Sunday at 2:54 p.m. a quake took place a half mile southwest of Roble de Barva de Heredia. That had a magnitude of 4.4.


Sunday drivers jam autopista
for miles before toll booths


The new San José-Caldera highway failed to live up to its promise Sunday when a flood of drivers jammed toll stations and paralyzed traffic.

Some traffic jams were miles long.

The tie ups were attributed to an insufficient number of individuals working at toll booths and the desire of many Costa Ricans to try out the new highway, which was supposed to cut at least 45 minutes off the trip from San José to the Pacific coast.

The contractors, Autopista del Sol S.A., already have been criticized for building a two-lane route with just a third passing lane in some uphill stretches. The project has been in the works for 30 years. The highway was opened for public use Thursday.

Policía Municipal de Escazú. photo