Record floods inundate tropical Central America leaving 16 dead.

The National Meteorological Institute (IMN) of Costa Rica says that Costa Rica’s 2008 rainfall is going to be the heaviest in 60 years, and a significant portion of that has fallen over the past week in association with the remnants of a tropical depression. 100,000 residents have also been forced to leave their homes over four countries in Central America, with the majority of the evacuees coming from Costa Rica.

Up to 15 inches of rain fell after Tropical Depression 16 moved through last week, which led the IMN to declare the floods to be the worst in over a century. Seven people died from the flooding in Costa Rica, four in Nicaragua, three in Honduras, and one each in El Salvador and Guatemala.

Bridges were smashed, villages were flooded and roads have been blocked by the flooding in Costa Rica. The latest round of rain is coming on top of what has been one of, if not the most intense rain season on Costa Rican record.

Experts are blaming the record rains on the influx of tropical storms that have rocked the region. A steady amount of storms have moved through the region and have ‘sat over’ Central America, moving slowly and dumping heavy rains for days at a time.

Though the depression dissipated on Friday, the US National Hurricane Center warned that landslides and flooding were still possible from the storm.

Author: Chris Bianchi, Climate monitor