Sorry for not writting for a while. In truth, I have been writing a lot, but it has been software for the company. It has been keeping me rather busy, and amused if the truth be known.

We have had several people contacting us making sure we are okay, which we appreciate and of course they are also interested in the effect of the earthquake on the trees.

First of all, we barely felt the earthquake. I didn’t feel it at all even though I was standing next to people who did. I did hear the gates rattle though. The most exciting thing we had happen was for a vehicle in the repair garage to shimmy sideways during the earthquake.

Nothing else in our neck of the jungle. We happen to in an area that is probably the most stable in all of Costa Rica. Normally we don’t feel much at all, if we do, it is from Managua, Nicaragua. In fact, at first we were concerned that Managua had had another large earthquake.

A few comments on the earthquake. If it wasn’t in January, or another part of the country, there probably would be no news - a 6.2 isn’t much. I can recall at least three that we have had since we have been here. The problem is the time of year and the location.  Most of the time they are down at the border of Panama or near the beaches at Parita. This was in the mountains above the Central Valley. This area is very steep (unlike the coast, of course) and very deforested - and very populated. If it had been a 7.0, it would have been much, much worse.

The building codes of Costa Rica are very very good, but, people will cut corners and the inspections in the countryside are not what they are in the city.  One thing however, most homes have a tin roof - even ours. This trend I hear started after the traditional clay roofs that you think of in Spanish construction killed many people in the earthquake in Cartago many years ago.

This earthquake as far as loss of life and property damage is the worst in a very long time I gather.   Having a significant earthquake in January is a real problem. It is when the soils are the wettest. I know you have probably heard that the dry season in Costa Rica starts in December - well not on this side of the mountain.  From December to about the middle of January is one of the wettest times of year. The land is saturated. If you take saturated soils, little rock, and deforestation and add an earthquake, you get landslides, which were the causes of loss of life.

Anytime something like this happens, the thought that goes through my mind is “Surely those who removed all the trees above their homes didnot realize they were dooming their family…” And my next thought is usually, “I wonder what things I am doing that are setting up disaster in the future for those I love.”

Though it isn’t healthy to always worry about the future, it also is not healthy to asssume there will not be dreadful consequences if we don’t consider the future outcomes to our actions. The most difficult ones are the actions that are like a time bomb. If, when you cut down a tree on a steep slope , immediately you had a landslide, no one would do it. But, what happens is that you took the tree and left the roots, and until the roots decay, the tree is still holding the slope together. But eventually (and this could be ten years and more for some trees) the roots will be gone - and then the slope will start to move. As you drive around Costa Rica, you can see slopes that have moved - usually about this time of year.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 5:55 am and is filed under buying land, conservation, earthquake, finca, forest, landslides, resources, trees. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.