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The one in 1991 in Limon was much larger, at 7.4 with more people killed.
In Turrialba where we used to live there were and still are many structures still in disrepair.
There has been more over 6.0 than is on that list. We have experienced, more than a few here, including the one on Christmas Day, 2004, http://www.amcostarica.com/122503.htm
So far, 18 confirmed during the one with more deaths expected.
Lets hope for the best.From the Embassy:
Subject: Message about January 8 earthquake from US Embassy
The Embassy alerts Americans traveling or living in Costa Rica that Costa Rica continues to experience numerous aftershocks from the January 8th earthquake. The Embassy encourages all American citizens in Costa Rica to contact their families and friends to update them on their welfare and whereabouts.
Most areas of Costa Rica have been unaffected by the earthquake, but the Embassy strongly cautions Americans to delay travel to the areas that were hardest hit which include Poas volcano and the La Paz Waterfall Gardens near the community of Vara Blanca. Approximately 300 tourists, including several dozen Americans, were stranded overnight in that area. Costa Rican authorities expect to extract all of the stranded tourists by January 9.
The Embassy has been in constant contact with local authorities and has not received any reports of any American deaths or missing Americans. A few Americans were reported injured by falling debris, but none seriously. The Embassy encourages any affected American citizen to contact the US Embassy as soon as possible. The Embassy is located in Pavas, a suburb of San Jose; telephone 506-2519-2000 during business hours (8am to 4:30pm), or 506-8863-4985 for after-hours emergencies; fax 506-2519-2099; internet website http://sanjose.usembassy.gov . The Consular Section is open for all American Citizen Services from 8AM to 11:30AM weekdays, excluding US and some Costa holidays. The Embassy has been inundated with inquiries about Americans traveling in Costa Rica. Without specific information as to where an individual is staying (the name of hotel and the city in which it is located), it is very difficult to locate any tourist that has not checked in with his/her family. The more information that can be provided about an individual the easier it will be to track them down.
American citizens in the US may call toll-free 888-407-4747 to inquire on the whereabouts and welfare of travelers in Costa Rica. Although Costa Rica is a geographically small country (about the size of West Virginia) many tourist sites are located in isolated locations, and mobile telephone service in those areas is often sporadic. The Embassy also suggests that individuals who are worried about their American citizen family members or friends, who are in Costa Rica, should continue to attempt to contact them directly via e-mail or telephone.
We live below San Miguel and felt the quake and many of the aftershocks (and are still feeling them). There is 4wd access past our farm into Cariblanco and heavy equipment, quad bikes and 4 x 4 ambulances have been using it since the quake. Although the area at the epicenter is largely rural fruit and veg productions along the Vara Blanca road (the old highway to Sarapaqui that was used before the building of the Zurchi pista to Limon) there are some very large tourist attractions, in particular the $200 / night Peace Lodge and the La Paz waterfall gardens. As of tonight, it is believed that all surviving turists and locals are out of the area, indeed Cariblanco was evacuated amid fears of further landslides. The only access to La Paz has been through helicopter rescue – many foreigners were charged $500 by privateer helicopters to be evacuated which was pretty disgusting – but the current death toll (18, with 64 missing) is only the start. 275 people (turists and employees) hiked out of La Paz for 5 hrs on Friday morning, many giving first hand reports of watching landslides wipe out the resturant where people were having lunch, and indeed some watched their family memebers being buried alive. Other reports include 29 turists looking at the lowest waterfall along the road side and not being accounted for. Their bus fell 50 m in a landslide and amazingly the driver survived. There is always 4 or 5 stands at the waterfall selling fruit and trinkets and all these people perished too along with several truck drivers about to cross the bridge heading north. Of the 64 missing currently reported to the red cross only 4 are foreigners (all from the UK) and no other turists are as yet considered missing. OIJ gained access to the La Paz car park today by helicopter and have started the process of recording all car number plates and tracing owners and rental agencies in order to account for missing people. There will be additional fatallities that may never be located along the road as many cars were simply washed away down the hillside and may be under literally thousands of tonnes of soil. The rio sarapaqui ran like molasses for 24 hrs full of mud and tree debris and there are dead fish everywhere. The 2 major businesses in the area, La Paz and the El Angel jelly/jam factory are close to totally destroyed, and over 3000 people are without habitable homes. The 3 yr old dam and hydro electric plant at Cariblanco was damaged – the dam has been checked and is in good shape, but the turbine hall was flooded by a tidal wave of mud and debris, and many of the ICE supertowers are down throught the region. We have intermitent power, many thousands of people have none, and no water. We are considering ourselves very lucky as I drove that road on wednesday and was due to drive it less than an hour after the quake hit. All our family, friends, animals are all in excellent shape. 6.2 may not seem much in guanacaste, but if you are right on the epicenter it can destroy everything. This is a huge human and ecological disaster and I truely hope all of the members of this website get their credit cards out and make a sizeable donation to the red cross (Cruz rojo Costaricences) online. One day, if you live in Costa rica, it could be your area that is smushed into oblivion and you will be grateful for all that the emergency services do for you then. Pay it forward as the american saying goes.
Edited on Jan 10, 2009 19:57
Alexgil, by no means, please do not think I feel this is a minor ‘earthquake! I feel awful for all of those have died, trapped and have lost their livelihoods.
I have been through other earthquakes here, but cannot imagine living through and experiencing first hand, what has happened with this recent one.
With reports I have heard of tourists being charged, it was because they didn’t want to wait their turn, since it was ‘woman, elderly & children first. But, it was still wrong!
It turns out, some neighbors 5Kl. down the road from us, still in Quanacaste. felt the earthquake.
And thank you for posting such an informative update.Alexgil,to say that the actions of the private heliocopter operators charging $500 or more to evacuate the earthquake victims was “pretty disgusting”
is an understatement. Mr Luis Paulino Guzman and Aerotour Aensa should be ashamed of themselves and ICT (Instituto Costarricense de Tourismo) should jerk their tourist license if they have one. They probably didn’t break any laws but their complete disregard for the suffering of the victims for a few dollars is morally reprehensible. Bad Karma. What goes around comes around. These people need all the help they can get and I second your plea for assistance.Did they actually name Mr Luis Paulino Guzman and Aerotour Aensa as the ones that did charge $500? Do we know what the normally charge is?
Was this featured in La Nacion? If so would you please email me the link… This would make a good ‘Shame On You!’ feature….
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comScott, helicopters charging victims for extraction: I saw this reported in premire impact on saturday or sunday night (can’t remember which), where stranded tourists were giving over wads of cash and one guy was signing a credit card receipt from one of those machines that makes an impression of your card. I personally didn’t hear any names of operators. From what I understand from the head of our nearby red cross is that private helicopters were asked to help under the agreement that CNE (national emergency service) would cover their costs including fuel and labor. But this maybe inaccurate.
Costaricafinca, I apologise for being snide in my comments, I intended to make it clear to readers not currently in Costa Rica that this wasn’t a little tremor but something huge for our region. I am sorry for that.Did anyone see the outrageous reporting on Teletica7 this morning (7am news) where the La Paz waterfall garden owner took a filmcrew in (I assume by private helicopter the site is only accessible by hiking up 5 hrs. He was filmed pointing out all the standing buildings and trying to hug a captive monkey that was having none of the “presenidents kissing babies before election day” crap. And announcing that they would be bulldozing damaged buildings and rebuilding and would be opening again in march, april, august, september – whenever it was possible. Not showing a single shot of reported landslides, the absence of the waterfall walks or the missing gift shop and bus at the end of the waterfall walk. It has been reported that they have 1.2million tourists a year which would mean 350 – 500 people including staff were at the attraction last thursday given its high season. Anybody know how many were airlifted out? 275 staff and tourists hiked out the day after, reporting terrible sights. Perhaps I am being cinical, but it smelt to me like damage control advertising. Guess he is a smart guy. I wonder however how he could ever be permitted to build there again given the damage seen on the helicopter footage and the inherent instablity of the steep slope to the river.
Scott, hope I didn’t say anything akin to liable- I want to make it clear I have no personal vendetta with this business, I have taken loads of friends and family there over the past few years. I just know the area very well and fear for the worse.
Don’t worry alexgil, if they contact me we’ll take down that part.
We’re not in the ‘news’ business ourselves, we provide information about living and retiring here and a lot of information about real estate but obviously much of what we feature could be considered news and yes! We want to give the bad as well as the good in Costa Rica.
Anyone that hides from the truth – whatever that truth may be – tends to be very, very disappointed in the end.
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comAlexgil and Scott, The name of the tour operator and manager (Aensa Aerotours and Mr. Luis Paulino Guzman) were in La Nacion, Sat., Jan. 10 on page 10. I also saw the interview of the owner making his outrageous statements and he din’t convince me. What a shame. The waterfall gardens and the whole Vare Blanca area are one of most beautiful in Costa Rica. I have been there several times but won’t be going back except maybe in my next life.
I ‘think’ it was in Friday edition of the TicoTimes.net that company names were mentioned in regards to charging for transportation. Presently this site is down so I can’t find the link.
I do know that locals were forced to wait, until tourists were evacuated first!Does any body have any photos of the damage at Peace Lodge?
My husband and I stayed there a couple of years ago and it is/was truly one of the most beautiful and ecologically amazing places we’ve ever seen. We are SO sad that it was torn up. However, I have spent hours on the computer on news sites and YouTube and Googling all variations of words and have only found one photo of the roof of one of the main buildings. Reports vary from “totally destroyed” to “some roof damage.” Are there any photos?
The devastation to the nearby towns and Tico homes is horrendous!! My heart goes out to all involved.
http://news.aol.com/article/costa-rica-quake-death-toll-rises/299026
There were a few photos of the main building, I think. Yes, it’s awful. I feel for those people, AND for the animals who are without homes, food, or water, just roaming around trying to find their owners.
There was four 2-4.5 earthquakes in the same area last night/early this morning. One more death.
Maravilla, after looking at the photos on the link you provided, I felt shame for the tourists, who sat on their chairs as if they were at the beach. And read elsewhere that some complained, quote “‘(The hotel staff) told us we would get some food at 3 p.m., and then there was no food. … They told us we would get blankets when it got dark, then there were no blankets. … Then they told us the army was coming to pick us up in the morning, and all we had were news stations and photographers.’”
People all around them, had lost everything, including their loved ones and their livelihoods!
Edited on Jan 13, 2009 13:59
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