Living in Central America means that news about hurricanes approaching landfall is to be expected every year. Most of the time Costa Rica is spared from direct hits. However, in recent years, more and more hurricanes have come closer and closer.
In 2016, Hurricane Otto struck Costa Rica and Nicaragua, in what was one of the biggest natural disasters in my memory. After seeing the devastation it created, I felt compelled to go and help.
The cantons of Upala, Los Chiles, and Guatuso were the most affected by the rains. Ten people died due to Otto, and many families lost almost all of their belongings.
I spoke with a group of friends and managed to put together several bags of food and essential items in half a day. The next day, we prepared to travel for about 4 hours to help clean the houses.
The experience was surreal. The road and the feeling of desolation were something I had never experienced before, and I hope I never have to again. We arrived around 7:00 am; the sky was covered by very thick and uniform gray clouds. I remember that the amount of light didn’t change throughout the day.
It was as if time stood still; the hours of the day all seemed the same.
When we arrived, people were already cleaning the houses. All their belongings were in the street covered in mud. Some houses had at least 30 cm (if not more) of very thick mud.
We arrived at the house of a friend of someone traveling in the car with us. But they told us it would be better if we went a little further, because the houses ahead were in the worst condition. And so we did.
We started cleaning as soon as we found a place, three of us in one house and the other three in another. We started around 7:45 am and finished around 2:00 pm. But it still wasn’t completely clean. It would take at least another day or two of hard work to clean it properly. I understood that after all, we had to manually match the force with which the hurricane had put all the mud inside in the first place.
Around 3:00 pm, we went to another house. Only the father of the family remained there, cleaning the property. He had sent his wife and two daughters to spend the night with a relative in San José just before the hurricane arrived.
Another 30 to 20 cm of thick mud covered the floors.
I remember him telling me that his eldest daughter was going to have her first communion the following Sunday, a tradition where boys and girls dress completely in white.
Not long after I started sweeping and pushing the mud out of the house, I found one of the white shoes she was supposed to wear for the event, completely ruined and covered in mud.
That day I learned about the power of nature and how quickly things can change, and how incredibly lucky we are not to experience these kinds of events regularly.
But I also remember feeling proud of how the Costa Rican people jumped in to help, clean, and provide food and other essential items to our brothers and sisters affected by the hurricane. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people traveled to help clean the houses of complete strangers, and many thousands more donated to ensure health and food.