Thank God, we are finally heading in to November and the rainy season in Costa Rica is nearing it’s end. This year has actually, been a good rainy season. Yes, rain is good. The liquid of life. As you may or not may know we had a pretty bad drought for the last 3.5 years, and the rain has been a blessing.
Normally we receive between 40 and 60 inches of rain a year all coming from June thru Mid-November, with October usually being the heaviest rainfall. Some years a bit less, some years more. Well, to hold true to form, as of writing this Playa Hermosa has received 28.9 inches of rain, and there are a few days to go. Year to date in Playa Hermosa we have received 81.3 inches of rain.
This year we had the unfortunate low-pressure weather pattern that turned in to Tropical Storm NATE, that really hit this part, and many other parts, of Costa Rica hard. Many local folks in low lying areas were flooded out and lost most if not all of their belongings. In a 72-hour period from October 3rd to October 5th, I measured 16.8 inches of rain just in Playa Hermosa. Playas Del Coco received over 22 inches of rain in the same period of time and the distance between the two beach town is just a mere 3 miles.
Many people may have seen on national weather reports, Facebook or the internet, accounts of the river of water flowing down the main boulevard of Playa Del Coco to the ocean. In the Bay of Coco, many boats cut free of their moorings due to the high and very unusual tide and ended up on the beach.
Massive efforts by the expat community and locals alike all chipped in to help those that were in need. Many donated clothes, bedding toiletries, bottle water and of course food for those that were living in shelters to stay dry and out of dangerous situations. There were even a couple of organized beach clean ups to remove the debris that was washed up on shore. I even have clients that saw this and emailed me what can we do to help. Many sent funds to the Costa Rica Red Cross. Others who were flying down to visit, and a few more to still arrive, have suitcases filled with items as some people are still not back to 100%, and may not be for a while. To those of you that did help out and are on this mailing list, I send you a BIG PERSONAL THANK YOU for opening up your hearts.
Some people may say wow that’s an incredible amount of rain. In reality yes, it is a lot of rain, but it is all good. It is only when a massive tropical storm hits that it is a problem for a short period of time. As I sit here front of this laptop writing this I can look out of my office door and thru the conference room windows of the Tres Amigos office and see sunny blue skies and not a trace of rain. Hope it stays this way, but the averages say we will get some more rain before the Costa Rica rainy season is over.
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