CARIFESTA contingent prepares for hurricane

Hurricane Debby is threatening the Isle of St. Kitts and Nevis, which just happen to be where a twenty-nine member Belizean delegation is representing the country at CARIFESTA. This evening we spoke with Beverly Smith Lopez, who is braving the weather along with the contingent of artists and performers.

Beverly Smith Lopez, Director, Arts Council, Via Phone

“Presently, it’s breezy. It’s strong breeze and it’s drizzling a bit. Across the mountains where we can see, it looks very gloomy. They feel as if though it will pass through. It’s like three hundred miles from St. Kitts and it stands a good possibility of coming through either later tonight or tomorrow morning.”

“As you know it has been upgraded to hurricane Debbie. We are still in CARIFESTA Village, which is in St. Peters, of St. Kitts, and its extremely high land. All the houses were built for hurricane specifications, that we are staying in and Belize has five houses. They’re brand new houses, we are the first inhabitants. They’re good houses and they’re on very high land. What we have done is that we have gone down town this morning and bought water. As contingents, we made sure we had enough water, enough bread, enough of the basic foods. In case of the next two days we will have enough things to suffice us…Prepared. like how we are, prepared for a hurricane in Belize. I am sure that the water is not going to affect us. This is very high ground and I want to assure the people of Belize that we are safe.”

While Lopez hopes that CARIFESTA will continue, she would like the families of the delegation to know that they can be reached at 869-466-6788.