LIVING LIFE IN COSTA RICA blog: FLOODING • ROAD CONDITIONS • CLOSURES - Caribbean Side • Turrialba, Costa Rica

July 28, 2012 - CHECK OUT PICTURES and VIDEOS from TURRIALBA at:

http://facebook.com/TDNTURRIALBA

CARIBBEAN SIDE

JUST hung up with the gal I'm Pet/House Sitting for whose's heading back via car from Bocas del Toro, Panama via the coastal route (though Puerto Viejo, Chauita & Limon) and they just decided to stay somewhere nearby because the area's been having LOTS of rain over the past 4 days and now the river is overflowing at the Bananito Bridge about 17km South/before Limon so that road is closed & water is STILL rising.
UPDATE: 4pm - Looks like my friends made it across in their high truck but the flooding, if you were walking, is up to your knees so low cars may not do well with it.
5:15pm - They only got 15km North/West of Limon - around the Estrada area heading West and it is now CLOSED as there are some bridges that are flooded up to or over, and there's at LEAST 2 hours of back up traffic and it's starting to get dark. Now they're stuck & can not pass. Will stay the night*

*STUCK ALONG THE WAY IN BETWEEN SAN JOSE AND PUERTO VIEJO OR LIMON AND WANT TO KNOW A HOTEL WHERE TO STAY?My friends got stuck with road/bridge closures and ended up staying at a little hotel about 15km West of Limon in a small town called Buffalo. They were VERY PLEASED with it and got a 2-bedroom apartment with livingroom, tv, kitchen for $60/night + 13% tax.

Hospedaje Paso Caribe
2-797-2251 • HospedajePasoCaribe@gmail.comFacebook.com/pages/Hotel-PASO-Caribe/350510168321773

HIGHWAY 32:
(from Limon to San Jose):
As of 3:48pm on Saturday - the Transito website shows Highway 32 was OK/passible.

TURRIALBA AREA

HIGHWAY 10:
(Turrialba - Siquirres (the back road from Limon)
CLOSED - From CATIE (on the approach to Turrialba) 2 mile to hacia la Suiza, height of the narrow, landslide, closed, no way you're passing.

EYE-WITNESS REPORT:
I just finished (for now) IMing with Ginnee in Turrialba - CostaRicaMountain.blogspot.com - who reported they've had 18" of rain in the past DAY. They have LOTS of flooding, rivers are over flowing. A landslide near CATIE dropped a tree on a bus and some of Erika's friends were on it (but they're ok). Needless to say, the road from the Caribbean that takes you through Turrialba is a no go also!!! Ginnee's going to go drive around her farm with the quad to assess any damage and take pictures.

LATEST FROM GINNEE:
"As of this morning more than 18" of rain had fallen since last night. The photo is my driveway road through my farm. And this is as far as I could go, the streams are swollen and deep having cut since the rains started. I can not get off the farm, nor through the farm because the streams are too deep and fast for our quad. We have over-flow channels from the river, they are usually dry....they now look like a raging river.

This is not our worst ever rain event, not even close (when we have big rain, the stream is fast, can wash your car away).... but it is still a lot of water.

It is only a foot deep once you cross the stream, but crossing the stream is the problem. It comes from a 40' waterfall above the road about a 20 minute hike.

This report is from Finca Quijote de La Esperanza above Atirro de Turrialba"