Belize City Prepares for Flooding in the Days Ahead

Here in the city, the situation in the south side is feeling the brunt of the torrential rains. The Kroonman Lagoon is flooding and posing a threat to residents. This morning Councilor Oscar Arnold was in the area assisting residents with the building of a reliable and permanent structure. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

As floodwaters continue to rise in other parts of the country, low-lying areas in Belize City have taken water overnight.  On Thursday, we visited Jerusalem, a community built over the Krooman Lagoon.  While the elevated wooden structures are still comfortably above the rising water level, properties that are on Antelope Street Extension are inundated.

Oscar Arnold

Oscar Arnold, Belize City Council

“Because I am the P.U.P. standard bearer for the area, I was meeting with a group of individuals that lives there for a few months now and they were explaining to me the urgency that they had in repairing their bridge because a few people had fallen through it.  We had some kids that already had gotten hurt, a couple of gentlemen and the last person was a pregnant woman that had fallen through the bridge and had to be hospitalized.”

Concerns about a faulty walkway are, for now, a thing of the past.  With help from City Councilor Oscar Arnold, who is also running in Collet in the upcoming general elections, construction materials were donated to residents here to build a solid platform ahead of the rainy season.

Edwin Tobar

Edwin Tobar, Resident, Antelope Street Extension

“He gave us the lumber and all of us do the bridge.  We built in like three days, we built it all the way to the back.  I don’t know if you went to the back and that’s how we got down to do the bridge.”

Isani Cayetano

“Now I’m assuming that for as long as you’ve been living here in the Jerusalem area there’s always been water, maybe not this high but there’s always been water, correct?”

Edwin Tobar

“Just when it’s raining.  When we have dry season it’s really dry, kids could play down there and everything but we don’t have water like that.  The only place that has water a lot is the lagoon that’s across there.”

Oscar Arnold

“When they presented me with the issue that they were having, I called a few people that I knew, a few friends and we got a forty-foot container donated of roughly twenty-four thousand dollars worth of lumber.  The individuals had enough people who knew about construction and about building and they were the ones who built their bridge.  So right now, they built about, it took them about a week and a half and they built about a thousand foot of their bridge.  It’s higher than what they had before, it’s much more sturdier and much more safer.  Last night I was there at about eight o’clock and the water did rise and it covered some areas of what they had there, the old bridge.”

The Krooman Lagoon is flooding and those excess waters are finding their way into nearby homes and properties.  Jesus Portillo has been residing here for several years.  Getting in and out of his yard this morning, has been a challenge.  The entire property is submerged.

As co-chair of the Damage Assessment and Needs Assessment Subcommittee, Councilor Arnold has been canvassing the city since morning to identify areas that are affected by water, as well as those in the respective communities that require assistance.

Oscar Arnold

“I’m still a sitting councilor and I am in charge of the damage assessment and needs assessment subcommittee.  I’m one of the co-chairs, and so driving around Collet and also Belize City we were looking at the areas that were more prone to flooding.  Earlier this morning at about 5:30 and 6:00 the high tide exacerbated the issue in some of the seashore areas and it’s just one of the things that we know that if you have a significant weather event, significant rainfall and then you have the high tide, it’s kind of the perfect storm for flooding.  But coming back to the Collet area, we do have a lot of areas that were built out of swamp.  A lot of people have yards with improper drainage and so this morning we were around, we were in the Maskall Street area and we were clearing some of the drain culverts and also some of the drainage in the area so that the water can run out of the yards and move freely to the areas that they were designed to do.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.