Tuesday, January 13, 2009
President Oscar Arias declared a national emergency for areas affected by the earthquake on Thursday in order to facilitate the process of aid in addition to an order five days of mourning from Monday.
The measure also states that flags should remain at half mast and the suspension of festive activities by central government, which forced to suspend some events scheduled for this week's visit to the country's former Formula One driver, German Michael Schumacher as part of a road safety campaign.
The authorities managed to establish the whereabouts of dozens of people who were on a list of missing in the earthquake of 6.1 degrees, which was reduced from 109 to 23.
The Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) said that the discovery and identification of a body on Monday rose to 15 over the official number of deaths from the earthquake. The Red Cross reported at the weekend to 18 deaths and said it will again provide a toll when the rescue operations.
Most of those reported missing is now in shelters served by the Red Cross and the Emergency Commission (CNE).
Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias asked Congress to give him a loan processing 65 million dollars from the World Bank and was designed to prevent emergencies through infrastructure.
"We want to give MPs and the country full guarantees that these resources be used properly, budgets and routed through the various entities involved with the reconstruction of damaged areas such as housing, health or aqueducts, "he said.
The initial assessment showed a figure close to 100 million dollars in damages. Arias added that he also managed to lawmakers to deal with another loan from the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) for 850 million dollars.
The head of Red Cross relief, Guillermo Arroyo, would be a miracle that anyone is alive. "It's unfortunate but we are convinced that at this stage there are no survivors, but we are still searching," he said in statements to Channel 6.
The lifeguard Carlos Herrera told Channel 7 that rain threatens the search and rescue work in the affected area, about 40 kilometers north of the capital, thus further softens the soil, full of mud and unstable. "If it rains we will have to stop because we can not endanger the lives of boys. Hill was moving slowly and in a huge amount of land that has fallen," he said.
The quake affected some 128,100 people in the central region of the country, reported Monday the CNE.
An mentioned sections of 26 roads affected by landslides or falling of the road, bridges destroyed, power systems collapsed and 21 shelters with 2,248 people. Some 60 communities were affected.
CNE teams visiting from house to house and found 250 families with total losses in properties.
