As a result of the heavy rains that have affected the country in the past few days floors are saturated and floods have been reported in different areas of the country, the National Emergency Commission (CNE) in Costa Rica declared a red alert for five counties: Nicoya, Nandayure and Hojancha in Guanacaste and Corredores and Coto Brus in the South Pacific region.

Red Alert is issued when there are serious consequences due to a particular phenomenon in a specific area. The alert allows calls on different institutions to carry out different operations such as surveillance, evaluation of the damages and needs, immediate response to the emergency, search and rescue, and rehabilitation of the areas. The rest of Puntarenas and Guanacaste
provinces are under orange alert, while the Central Valley has a yellow alert.

The heavy and constant rain of the past few days is the result of the indirect effects of what is now tropical depression ETA which hit the Central American region, specifically Honduras and Nicaragua, earlier this week as a hurricane.

In Costa Rica, floods and overflowing rivers have been reported in the Central, North and South Pacific, in total through yesterday over 400 incidents had been reported in more than 60 communities and 721 people are in shelters. Roads have also suffered damages; the video below shows the moment in which a sector of route 237 in Coto Brus collapses.

Route 27 which connects San Jose and Caldera is currently closed due to two landslides.