Attachments
A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the disaster Julia was a category one hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) that made landfall in Nicaragua and affected many countries in South America, Central America, and Mexico.
Julia originated from a tropical wave that departed the west coast of Africa on 26 September 2022. The wave was quite weak and produced limited shower activity while it moved across the tropical eastern Atlantic during the next few days. By 1 October, however, showers and thunderstorms increased along the wave axis.
By far, the most life-threatening hazard associated with Julia was the large swath of heavy rains and associated flash flooding. The figure below shows an accumulated rainfall map for the Central American region.
Due to the increase in rainfall, the entry of various tropical storms, and Hurricane Julia, soil saturation remained high in the regions of the territory. With the arrival of several tropical waves such as #44, 46, and 47 there were heavy rains accompanied by isolated storms mainly in the areas of the South Pacific and Central Pacific.
The heavy rains that fell in Costa Rica since 8 October 2022 caused severe flooding in several areas of the country, mainly in the South Pacific and Central Pacific regions. Families were forced to take refuge with relatives or move to collective centers set up to deal with the emergency.
On 17 October, heavy rains occurred in the Central Pacific in the cantons of Parrita, Garabito, Quepos and in the South Pacific in the cantons of Buenos Aires, Golfito, and Osa and in the Central Region in the cantons of Desamparados and Aserrí causing flooding due to overflowing rivers and obstruction of sewers; affecting homes, businesses, roads, bridges and causing major landslides in the canton.
Timeline of alerts for this and subsequent events:
-
10 October 2022: 10 October 2022: Based on the monitoring, a Red Alert was issued in the South Pacific. Yellow Alert in North Pacific, Districts of Paquera, Cóbano, and Jicaral, as well as islands in the Gulf of Nicoya, Northern Zone (including Sarapiquí). Central Pacific, Caribbean, and Central Region were upgraded to Green Alert.
-
11 October 2022: Red Alert was maintained in the South Pacific. Green Alert in North Pacific, Districts of Paquera, Cobano, and Jicaral, as well as islands in the Gulf of Nicoya. The alert status was lifted for the Caribbean.
-
13 October 2022: Red Alert was maintained in South Pacific. Yellow Alert in Central Pacific, North Pacific, and Northern Zone (including Sarapiquí). Green Alert was maintained in Central Region.
-
18 October 2022: Red Alert was maintained in South Pacific, Yellow Alert was maintained in the North Zone (including Sarapiqui), Central Region, Orange Alert in the Central Pacific, North Pacific, Cantons of Puriscal, and Turrubares, Los Santos Zone.
-
20 October 2022: A general decrease in soil moisture was experienced throughout the national territory, in view of which the CNE made the following alert changes: Orange Alert in South Pacific, Green Alert in Central Pacific, North Pacific, North Zone (including Sarapiqui), Central Region.
-
21 October 2022: The CNE foresaw that for the second half of the week, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) would remain weak and with low moisture content in southern Central America, in view of this it was established Yellow Alert for South Pacific, and Green Alert for Central Pacific, North Pacific, North Zone (including Sarapiquí), Central Region.
-
5 November 2022: The CNE raised to Yellow Alert for the Pacific slope and the Central Valley and a green alert for the Northern Zone, since the IMN indicated that the proximity of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and a low-pressure system would favour rains in the coming days.
-
11 November 2022: The CNE raised a Green Alert due to a change in rainfall pattern. An increase in rainfall was expected during the week for the Caribbean and Northern Zone, in addition to continued scattered afternoon showers with isolated thunderstorms in the Central and South Pacific.
-
2 December 2022: The CNE foresaw a decrease in rainfall, and a Green Alert was maintained for the Caribbean and Northern Zone. All other alerts were lifted.
-
14 December 2022: The CNE announced that due to the return to seasonal conditions, the current alert for rainy conditions was lifted.