Saturday 10 January 2009, San José, Costa
Rica
Death Toll Rises To
30,
100 More Still
Missing
Tourists Evacuated After
Fatal Quake
You Too Can Help
Cinchona
Completely Disappears Off The Map
Armed Forces
Lower
Inflation Expected In
2009
Pizzeria Staff Takes
Savings to Costa Rica
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Death Toll Rises To 30,
100 More Still
Missing
The official death toll
in Costa Rica's
strongest earthquake in
decades has risen to 30,
with a hundred more
missing, according to
the Cruz Roja
Costarricense (Costa
Rican Red cross), who is
heading the rescue and
recovery efforts after
the 6.2 quake hit on
Thursday at 1:21pm.
The hundreds stranded in
various parts of the
area known as Vara
Blanca were picked up by
private helicopters
working with the
Comisión Nacional de
Emergencias (CNE) - national
emergency commission.
The wailing sirens of
ambulances and emergency
vehicles from the Tobias
Bolaños airport in Pavas
to various medical
centres in San José
replaced the noise of
the daily traffic in the
west end, as the rescued
were taken to the
hospitals for
evaluation.
The majority of those
trapped were tourists
from the United states,
Canada, France, Spain
and other countries were
in the La Paz Waterfall
Gardens at the time of
the quake.
In the early morning
hours of Friday the
death toll was said to
be 13. Red Cross and
police authorities
quickly corrected the
news, saying
communications over the
police radio was
misunderstood and the
death toll was really 4.
However, as the day
progressed, more bodies
were uncovered under the
debris and the interior
of vehicles trapped
under the landslides.
The rescued told
officials of seeing
bodies everywhere. The
efforts on Friday were
centred on rescuing the
survivors first and then
begin the gruesome task
of recovering the
bodies.
Rescue and recovery
efforts were hampered by
poor rain conditions and
the presence of
aftershocks. However,
the Cruz Roja said they
would continue their
efforts even in the
presence of danger from
the aftershocks, denying
reports that rescue
efforts had been
suspended.
The quake centred some
10 kilometres east of
the Poas volcano on the
north face of the
Central Valley mountains
left areas where the
roads are no longer,
power lines down, the
Cariblanco power
generating station with
serious damage that will
take time to repaid.
Many of the homes of the
area were seriously
damaged, some beyond
repair, as the strongest
quake in the last 150
years .
It will take some time
for the area to get back
to normal, especially
where the road vanished
into the mountain side
as new routes will have
to be carved out and
built.
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