Two Waves of Flood Waters from Neighboring Guatemala Entered Belize

Since Sunday, there have been waves of floodwaters moving through Belize’s river system. This explains why the floodwaters in the Mopan and Belize Rivers receded temporarily before rising once again.  Principal Hydrologist Tennielle Hendy also addressed the concerns of residents living in the Belize River Valley, in light of the devastation caused by Hurricanes Iota and Eta.

On the Phone: Tennielle Hendy, Principal Hydrologist

“What we seen is that we have had two waves within the span of two days. I believe it was on Sunday Monday that we saw the Benque Viejo Station at Succotz exceed the levels of Mitch, receded and the next day it is already up back at those same levels exceeding Mitch Levels. So, we are seeing more than one flood waves coming down and most of this is related to the trans-boundary aspect of flooding. Some flood waters will reach that community, to say specifically that you are going to get a number of feet in your area that is not possible because there is a lot of landscape throughout the riverine system, so it will spread out and the rest will go down the river system. To put into perspective, we don’t expect it to be as bad as Eta and Iota. I think that is resident in a lot of the public minds. When we had Eta and Iota it was so horrible, are we expecting the same thing? From what we are seeing, we don’t expect it to be that bad. But, it is still at a level that we need to be concern and so we remain vigilant.”