Damages to Structures, Trees; Water & Electrical Disruption

All indications are that Tropical Storm Lisa will intensify to become a category one hurricane by landfall. Modules just before news time are suggesting a possible landfall north of Gales Point Manatee on Wednesday afternoon. But that does not spare Belize City or the entire area north of the storm. Preparations must be made for strong winds, heavy rains, and a storm surge. Viewers would recall that back in August 2016, Hurricane Earl, a category one storm, caused eight to ten feet of tidal surge in Ladyville. NEMO National Coordinator, Lieutenant Colonel Shelton Defour speaks of the expected damages.

Shelton Defour

Lt. Col. Shelton Defour, National Disaster Coordinator, NEMO

“You have things like trees that will definitely – the branches will break, trees will be uprooted, power systems will be damaged where you won’t have electricity for some time so, that will affect water cause water runs with electricity. Sewage system will have issues, falling debris could hurt people. Storm surge – I will not speak much of the characteristics – but storm surge wind and rainfall are some of the critical. But those are some of the things that you have to be concerned with. Roof failure one of the key ones. If you live in a home that is not well constructed with hurricane straps and clips then you know you need to evacuate to safety.”

Ronald Gordon

Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist

“In regards to storm surge, it is a very peculiar thing. Storm surge isn’t correlated well with the maximum winds. Storm surge is more related to how large the system is. So you could have weak systems, but if they have a large radius of maximum winds, then you can have a bigger storm surge. And so putting that in context, given that we are expecting this system to be compact, we do not expect the storm surge to be very huge, however I did mention three to five feet – that is what we are seeing from the models that we are running at the moment, so we want folks to be prepared for that type of storm surge from this system.”