Rescue brigades on Saturday recovered three more bodies of people who died in a huge mid-week mudslide triggered by heavy rain, raising the death toll to 23, the Costa Rican Red Cross said Saturday.

Only one person is still missing and believed to be buried under the debris after a wave of mud and rocks early Thursday slammed into some 30 homes in San Antonio de Escazu, a southwestern suburb of Costa Rica's capital.

According to the Red Cross, more than 2,000 people across the country are in temporary shelters due to heavy rain which the government said has been more damaging than anything similar in more than a decade.

Several communities in this Central American nation remain isolated due to destroyed bridges, highway damage and roads blocked by landslides.

The National Emergencies Commission on Saturday worked on flying food, water and supplies to cut-off areas using airplanes and helicopters on loan from other countries, including Guatemala, Panama and Colombia.

Floods and landslides have killed some 300 people across Central America in this year's especially damaging and wet rainy season, which stretches from May to November.

earlier related report
Nine dead in Philippine floods, landslides: police
Manila (AFP) Nov 5, 2010 - Heavy rains in the northern Philippines have left nine people dead and forced thousands of others to flee their homes, police said Friday.

Flooding and landslides over the past three days sent more than 39,900 people from their homes in the northeastern part of the main island of Luzon, national police spokesman Agrimero Cruz said in a statement.

Those who had to leave their homes took refuge in government-run evacuation centres.

Nine people have been confirmed killed and four others are missing in the the mountainous region, Cruz said.

A cold front caused the heavy rains in the region, the state weather service said.