SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Four people were dead after late-season Hurricane Otto thrashed Costa Rica, President Luis Guillermo Solis said Friday.
The damage from the storm was heaviest in northern Costa Rica, he said.
Otto, which began as in Atlantic storm, was centered Friday over the open Pacific, after hammering the Central American isthmus on Thursday.
Downgraded to a tropical storm, Otto was about 260 miles south of San Salvador as of 2100 GMT Friday. The storm was moving westward at a speed of 16 mph, with maximum sustained winds reaching 59 mph.
Otto was forecast to continue moving west-northwest with no expected return to land, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said Friday.
In Upala on the Nicaraguan border, 25 people were missing, the Red Cross said.
Video from the storm-hit region showed flooding, mud-covered houses and roofs torn off buildings.
Nearly 1,200 houses were reported damaged. A bridge, two dams and dozens of roads were destroyed or damaged, and five water mains require repairs, newspaper La Nacion reported.
Costa Rican authorities evacuated about 4,000 people from the country’s Atlantic coast before Otto struck.
Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela said there were three storm-related deaths in his country, including one child killed on the way to school when the car his mother was driving was struck by a falling tree limb. Panama suffered significant flooding and damage to homes.
