Our Sales Director Tom Burton told me today “it is amazing how quickly things return to normal.  Life in and around Las Catalinas does seem to be pretty much back to normal for most folks.

Here is a good summary I found at Huffington Post this morning.  I am really SO impressed with how well Costa Rica handled this very large earthquake!

“The bulletins were terrifying: a powerful earthquake had struck off the coast of this Central American country, spawning a tsunami warning and bringing fears of widespread catastrophe.

But Costa Rica suffered remarkably little damage from Wednesday’s magnitude-7.6 quake – a few blocked highways, some collapsed houses and one death, of a heart attack caused by fright. Officials credited the relatively deep location of the quake and building codes that Costa Rican officials call as strict as those in California and Japan…

The relatively little damage was due in large part to strict building codes in Costa Rica, a country that has long enjoyed more stability, better governance and stronger economic development than many of its Central American neighbors, said Olman Vargas, president of the national College of Architecture and Engineering.”

Here are some more odds and ends of news:

The power is back on  at Las Catalinas – I must say that is faster than expected.

The tsunami alert has been cancelled.

At Las Catalinas we are sending some of the staff home early to be with their families and check on their homes.  Everyone is nervous!

The Liberia airport is without damage and is operating normally.

Route 27, the new toll road between San Jose and Caldera is closed with a huge landslide.

I still await more news of our immediate neighboring towns of Potrero and Flamingo, but I do not believe there are any injuries or fatalities from the quake.  In the whole country so far there are reports of two fatalities, and perhaps some dozens of injuries – I have not seen any official totals.

This really was a huge quake.  It was initially reported at magnitude 7.9, but that appears to be revised to 7.6.  Costa Rica should be proud to be weathering it so well.  By comparison, the very deadly Haiti earthquake of 2010 was magnitude 7.0, the Northridge quake in Los Angeles that did $20 billion of damage and killed 57 people was a 6.7 and the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 that destroyed over 80% of the city is estimated to have been between 7.7 to 7.9.

I just got off the phone with Bob Davey who is at in Las Catalinas and was there when the earthquake happened.  The quake lasted for about 30 seconds and was VERY strong.  Everyone and everything at Las Catalinas is safe and sound.  Bob toured all the houses at Las Catalanas looking for damage along with Marco Beeche.  They did not see any structural damage.  The buildings are fine.  Costa Rica earthquake codes are very strict and  it is paying off.   The damage is limited to some broken art objects, a glass shower door in one house, and some loose roof tiles on one house.

I do not have much information about the surrounding areas.  Bob has not left Las Catalinas.  He hears that:

• Power is off everywhere
• Roads heading down to the beach areas are closed because of the tsunami alert.

I have to suspect that there is damage to older buildings in the area, but no news on that yet.