By Wendy Anders

A total of 204 families need new homes after Hurricane Otto passed through the country in November. Preliminary data from the Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements (Mivah) confirmed that these houses are distributed throughout the areas affected by the extreme weather that buffeted the country in November – the Caribbean and northern region, parts of Guanacaste and also the southern Pacific.

“We have 59 families in Upala, 59 in Bagaces, 57 in Matina, 12 in Los Chiles, 12 in Golfito, one in Liberia, and four in Corredores who need new housing,” said Housing Minister Rosendo Pujol yesterday.

An additional 330 homes across the country were evaluated last week by the Mivah who reported that 76 of which need repairs, 24 need major repairs, and 21 need further evaluation, said the Mivah director also said that last Friday his agency evaluated.

“We have reports of 1,053 homes with some level of involvement from municipal emergency committees. Of these, many are water-logged, that is to say, that the water entered the house, but not so fast as to destroy it. We believe that there are even more flooded houses out there, but in these cases the Ministry of Housing does not intervene, rather other entities help,” Pujol explained in a press conference last week.

Pujol confirmed that the Mivah is still assessing damages to housing in the affected areas, as there are still some sectors that remain inaccessible.

“We have not visited La Cruz, the part that is closest to Upala in the north, we have not visited. There are also places like Puerto Jiménez in the south, which has not been possible to reach either,” said the Minister, due to road and bridge washouts in these areas.

Assessments will continue this week and next in the hopes of completing the inventory of housing damages, Pujol said.