ILCO Update: Rains continue in flooded Caribbean

By Gabriela Mora Matarrita
Translation by Krystal Overmyer

Current situation and forecast
Precipitation has continued intermittently and with variable intensity in the Caribbean and Northern Zone regions. It is anticipated that during the day November 28, rains with variable intensity will continue to predominate intermittently in these areas. Therefore, rescue and first aid efforts will continue for at least two more days. Adverse conditions for navigation continue in the Caribbean maritime sector.

At this time, according to the evaluation completed by National Meteorological Institute technical personnel, Red Cross field officials, reports from local emergency committees, and the National Commission of Risk Prevention and Emergency Response (CNE), the state and institutional declaration of Red, Yellow and Green alerts will continue in the country's various sectors. This is in addition to the National Emergency declared by the Costa Rican government.

The ILCO continues to await more information from contacts in the affected communities in which we have a presence, with the goal of channeling support according to the needs present in this situation that is affecting our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean.

Levels of Impact
The present conditions have caused: the overflow of rivers, flooding and landslides. Communities are reported to still be inaccessible, and many people have been displaced to temporary shelters.

• Floods in: 55 communities in the cantons of Sarapiquí, Pocosi, Guácimo, Siquirres, Matina, Limón, Talamanca y Sixaola.
• Cantons with the severest impact: Matina, Talamanca, Sixaola, Sarapiquí, Siquirres y Pococí.
• Isolated: 1,031 people in 9 communities.
• Landslides: 3
• Shelters: 113 dedicated shelters with 6,777 people.
• Total number of affected people inaccessible and in shelters: 9,672
• Total number of people affected directly: 46,600
• Deaths: 1

Infrastructure / Health

• 1 damaged aqueduct
• 1,100 wells affected by flooding and contamination in Matina and Sixaola.
• 7 dikes with damage important to note: dikes in the canton of Matina, 4 Millas, Zent Viejo, Carrandí, Placeres y  Matina.
• 11 affected bridges
• 4,600 flooded houses (preliminary evaluation)
• 1 affected clinic
• 12 education centers. 1 completely destroyed in Matina. This includes education centers that are being used as temporary shelters, which are suffering deterioration because of intensive use.
• Road closings

Other affected sectors:

• Limón port sector: The preliminary estimations from JAPDEVA (Atlantic Coast Port and Development Board of Administration) estimate damages at about 2 million colones (about $3.7 million USD).
• Agriculture sector: Primarily banana, plantain and cocoa production. Other minor crops affected include: yucca, ñama, and tiquizqui, among others. Annual crops: beans, rice, corn and sorghum on a smaller scale.
• Heads of livestock: More than 15,000 with likely problems due to problems associated with food transportation (concentrated), maintained and others. 1,500 hogs.
• Poultry: More than 5,000 birds used in the domestic and small business economy in the cantons of Matina, Pococí, Sarapiquí, Siquirres, Talamanca.

Government actions (CNE):

• National Emergency declaration.
• Declaration of Red, Yellow and Green alerts in different sectors of the country.
• Constant monitoring of meteorological behavior.
• Activation of the Regional and Local Emergency Committees.
• Support of coordination and actions taken by humanitarian disaster response organizations.
• Availability of aid supplies (blankets, foam mattresses, basic food rations).
• Airlift operations in helicopter.

ILCO update: National Emergency declared in flooded Caribbean

By Gabriela Mora, translation Krystal Overmyer

The National Commission of Risk Prevention and Emergency Response (CNE) declared a National Emergency today, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008, in Matina in Limón, with the goal of speeding up repair to damages caused by the storm affecting the Caribbean Coast. This declaration covers the cantons of Limón, Sarapiquí in Heredia, Moravia and Coronado in San José.

The CNE reports that the number of people displaced in shelters has risen past 5,000. In Talamanca there are 18 shelters with 1,606 people; in Matina there are 24 shelters with 1,581 people; in Siquirres the number of shelters increased to 12 with 763 people; in Sarapiquí five centers were opened with 559 people; in Limón there is one shelter with 100 people; and in Pococí there are two shelters open with 31 people. These numbers do not include those affected in communities left inaccessible, who have not been able to be evacuated to shelters.

In Matina, the Cuatro Millas and Barbilla River dikes were affected. Due to the rains, in the early morning hours yesterday the Costa Rican Petroleum Refinery (Recope) oil pipeline, which passes by Matina, broke and caused an oil spill. Because of the emergency in the Atlantic Zone, hydrocarbon pumping was suspended for several hours.

The Talamanca indigenous zone has also been severely affected. More than 4,000 people are suffering from the passing of this severe storm. Zones such as Amubry, Kachabri, Suiri, Bajo Cohen, Coroma, Mojoncito, Sepecue, Sibödi, among others, are cut off.

In these places, the Uren, Lari, Telire and Cohen rivers have overflowed and have destroyed roads, crops and housing.

The help of first aid units is arriving by air with four helicopters, as most roads are flooded and destroyed. There are a great number of communities left inaccessible.

It is evident our country is passing through very difficult times. The ILCO continues to await more information from contacts in the affected communities in which we have a presence, with the goal of channeling support according to the needs present in this situation that is affecting our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean.

Note to self:

When you are taking the long route to work, avoid walking by the all-boys high school. It will only invite questions as to:

1. Your paler-than-average skin tone;
2. Your lack of a male companion (oh, heavens! how unseemly!);
3. Your refusal to give those pimply-faced, hormonally driven teenagers the time of day.

America's favorite cookie

I love Oreos. I have since I was a little kid. Actually, writing this post is making me hungry just thinking about them. They're so good!

Fortunately, Oreos are available in Costa Rica, though the packaging is a bit different than U.S. standards. Also, although one can find the double-stuffed version, there apparently is no 1/3 less fat version to be found, nor are there the myriad of colors (Easter pastels! Halloween orange!) you'd find in the U.S. But that's OK. I'm an orig type of girl, anyway.

I'd packed a few snack-sized packets on my trip to La Fortuna and Arenal Volcano, thinking surely they'd come in handy. As it happened, I stashed a few on our five-hour, grueling hike up to Cerro Chato, an inactive volcano that has great views of the biggie, Arenal, plus a lake in the old crater that you can swim in.

I should've known better, I guess. I'd never tired anything that physically grueling since I attempted a 50 km bike tour in Bariloche, Argentina. Like then, I found myself contemplating alternative methods of completing the return trip. Helicopter rescue extraction? Rolling down? Spending the night up there and waiting till my muscles decided to recover?

We did make it to the top, where we met up with this really industrious Dutch couple who had totally passed us on the way up. As we sat by the lake, I broke out the Oreos - sweet nourishment! - and the male Dutch guy goes, "Hey, Oreos! So are they really America's favorite cookie?"

I like getting questions about the U.S. like this, because even though my first instinct is something like, "nahhhhh," upon further thought, I inevitably realize that our cultural depth is far more limited than I thought it was. For instance: I love Oreos! If I had to pick a store-bought cookie, I would probably choose them. And so would any number of other Americans, I imagine. I mean, gimme home-made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies any day, but if we had to choose one unifying cookie for the entire country - the cookie equivalent of the bald eagle, let's say - it's probably gonna be an Oreo. Pass the milk, please.

Ah, the Dutch couple. I wonder how often I live up to people's standards of what an American is or should be. As we started down the mountain, the Dutch couple (and the other 5 souls that attempted this hike) passed us, until we were basically the only ones up there (thwarting my ideas of rescue). Such hardy folk, the Dutch. Andrew and I were seriously sore - like my-bones-are-aching-like-an-old-person's sore - for the next few days. Meanwhile, I bet they were bungee-jumping into the volcano.

Food crisis looms as prices rise

People here, like everyone else in the world, are talking the same: Electricity's set to spike. Gas is creeping upward. Prices for basic items like milk, rice and beans are going up, up, up.

Things have been going this way for years, it seems; now it's only getting worse. The World Bank fears the global food crisis could set the world back seven years in the fight against poverty. While no one is immune to the crisis - indeed, U.S. food prices on basics like milk, eggs and bread have increased some 16-35 percent in the last year - it is the poor who feel the pinch the most. In industrialized nations, 10-20 percent of consumer spending is on food; in developing nations, that number rises to 60-80 percent.

The price hikes are dramatic. According to the World Bank, the price of rice has doubled in the last five weeks. Overall, food prices have risen 83 percent in the last three years. For the more than 1 billion people who live on $1 a day, the effects are profound. The hungry are taking to the streets in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean with protests and riots, sometimes ending in violence.

The causes are multiple. Export restrictions implemented by grain-producing countries have constrained supply, as has increased demand in Asia, the increasing diversion of grain to produce biofuels, bad weather. Rising fuel prices mean higher transportation costs, and in turn, higher agricultural commodity prices.

This may be the end of cheap bagels, pasta and bread, according to The Washington Post:



The Washington Post has a variety of resources exploring the causes of the food crisis and its effects, both in the world and in the U.S. Also included are ways to help.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/globalfoodcrisis/

In the meantime, what can we do? ILCO might answer that a more holistic approach to food consumption and our relationship to the environment is needed. The church was recently featured in a news segment for its botanical garden - a small plot near our parking lot with some vegetables and herbs. The idea, then, is that we grow a portion of what we consume. A number of church projects are tied up in the idea of sustainable agriculture - a topic I'm not completely familiar with. However, from what I understand, the idea is that producers, consumers and society work together producing plant and animal products that, over the long time, satisfy human needs, preserve the environment, keep farms economically viable and increase the quality of life overall for all parties involved. It is stewardship of both natural and human resources. As caretakers of this creation, perhaps we are in need of this reconciliation between ourselves and our environment - and ultimately among each other.