Well, first the final death toll is likely to be about 40, most of whom were killed by landslides. Officially, as of today, 19 bodies have been recovered and 21 more are buried under landslide debris. It is possible that there is a small number of addition casualties under collapsed slopes. Landslides continue to occur during aftershocks and there is growing concern about the potential for future slides (see image below). Initial estimates of the damage are $100 million. In a country with a GDP of $26 billion, this is a huge amount (in comparison, the GDP of the UK is $2.13 trillion, meaning that the equivalent loss in terms of GDP would be $8.2 billion). Estimates are that the earthquake destroyed 518 houses, triggered the loss of 16 miles of road and collapsed eight bridges. Of course there will also be a substantial hit to tourism, which is vital in this area.
In terms of landslides, the emergency management office has indicated that the earthquake triggered more than 246 landslides. Repair of roads damaged by the landslides is expected to cost $15 million (see image below).
Is there any information about how many post-earthquake landslides occurred ? I would like to know the reason ( or mechanism) why slopes which had survived the strong ground motion of main shock collapsed after few days.
ReplyDeleteI was in the earthquake in Costa Rica on the 8th. my wife and I were in Zarcero (I think thats how its spelled). The earth quake movement itself was felt and timed by us for at lest 8 minutes. The main shake was probably arounf 1 minute. We were in a restaurant that was up on stilts and the movement at the first 5 secounds was pretty intense followed by a swaying that seemed to me to be pretty gentle. On our ride back to San Jose we did not see any damage caused by the quake. We did however avoid large bridges. In San Jose itself we saw mainly cracks in building and it seemed the whole population of the downtown area was on the street. As far as landslides we did not see any. The terrain however to Poas volcano is very rugged and the main road up the volcano is built with very litle guard rails and there are many area where the road is right at the edge of very large drops. This is probably the biggest factor for so much damge to the road system in the area. i hope this helped. Jim Johnson
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