Four people were dead after late-season Hurricane Otto thrashed Costa Rica, dpa quoted President Luis Guillermo Solis as saying Friday. The damage from the storm was heaviest in northern Costa Rica, he said. Otto, which began as in Atlantic storm, was centred Friday over the open Pacific, after hammering the Central American isthmus on Thursday. Downgraded to a tropical storm, Otto was about 420 kilometres south of San Salvador as of 2100 GMT Friday. The storm was moving westward at a speed of 26 kilometres per hour, with maximum sustained winds reaching 95 kilometres per hour. Otto was forecast to continue moving west-north-west with no expected return to land, the Miami-based US National Hurricane Centre 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 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.
