Emergency officials blame
cities for poor urban planning


The nation's emergency commission blamed municipalities Tuesday for the deadly results of a heavy storm that hit the metro area Monday evening.

The emergency commission said that the municipalities should not give permission for construction when the property involved is in a high-risk zone. Maps of such zones exist.

A housewife and a domestic servant died about 5:30 p.m. Monday when a hillside gave way and dumped hundreds of tons of mud and debris into the home. The upscale home in Barrio Corazón de Jesús in Escazú was built against the towering hillside.

The  Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias is the primary response agency when flooding and such disasters happen, and its summary of the effect of flooding released Tuesday contained a note of frustration.

The release said that overworked storm sewers, inadequate draining ditches and poor urban planning conspired to produce the damage. In addition to the landslide that killed the two women, the commission said that some 80 homes were flooded in Limón, Alajuela, Heredia and San José.

In Carrandí in Matina in Limón province heavy winds destroyed a home, the commission said.

Some 30 homes were flooded in parts of Escazú, including San Rafael, San Antonio and the central part of the canton. The flooding was blamed on the La Cruz, Quebrada González and Río Agres waterways which ran out of their banks.

In the Canton de Mora, the school at Quitirrisí was endangered by a slide, the commission reported.

There also was flooding in Santa Ana and the nearby community of Pozos. Additional flooding was reported in Aserrí and San Miguel de Desamparados, said the commission.

In Alajuela 20 homes were reported flooded and in Santa Bárbara de Heredia, a bridge failed, the commission said.

The commission report noted that this is just the beginning of the heaviest part of the rainy season.

In Barrio Corazón de Jesús rescue workers managed to find the body of the missing domestic employee Tuesday. She was identified as Isabel Chavarría, 49, the mother of seven. The dead housewife was Haydé Cerutti, officials said.
Counterfeit DVDs found
in Cantón de Nicoya raids


Raids in the Cantón de Nicoya, Guanacaste, have resulted in police confiscating thousands of what they say were pirated DVDs.

The raids were by the Dirección de Investigaciones Especializadas of the Ministerio de Gobernación, Policía y

Seguridad Pública. At the same time as the raids were being announced, a spokesperson for the Poder Judicial said that José Merino de Río, a legislative deputy, and others had sought a constitutional opinion by the Sala IV on a new law that governs intellectual property. The new law is part of the

Officer surveys haul

package that implements the free trade treaty with the United States here.

Merino of Frente Amplio is a long-time opponent to the treaty. The new law tightens intellectual property rights. The agreement covers intellectual property such as DVDs, although Costa Rica has an existing law prohibiting such thefts.

The ministry said that the most recent raids stemmed from other raids. In one place in Santa Cruz investigators confiscated 20,600 movie DVDs, and disks for computers.

At four video clubs, investigators said they found 13,240 movie DVDs as well as VHS and devices for reproducing the copyrighted originals.