Christmas Eve Flash Floods Claim Tour Guide’s Life at Caves Branch; Several Tourists Rescued Further Up River at Teakettle
Heavy rains that fell over the mountains last week spelled tragedy on Christmas Eve for an experienced tour guide employed at Caves Branch who had taken a group of tourists on an expedition and returned to find flash floods in the river they had to cross back over to reach their base. And on the same day, dozens of tourists also had to be rescued a few miles upriver at the Aktun Tunichil Muknal or ATM caves, when they too found the same reality staring at them. News Five’s Marion Ali has the story in the following report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Thirty-nine-year-old Julio Escobar, a tour guide from Armenia Village, drowned on Christmas Eve in the Caves Branch River, after he and several other tour guides had ended their individual tours and met at the river to bring their tours back in. Escobar and another guide had led a group of about six tourists out on their expedition but when their group returned to the river mouth where they were to make their last leg back, they discovered that the river had swollen to over five feet and was rapidly rising still. It had apparently rained up in the mountains and the water was gushing down-river by that time. The group had with them floating tubes and helmets. And from reports that we got off-camera, two of Escobar’s fellow guides encouraged him to grab his floating device which was right beside him in the water, but he never reached for it and reportedly continued to swim for the riverbank on his own. He never made it. The Belize Police Department’s Communications Director, Assistant Superintendent Fitzroy Yearwood shared what they had gathered on the incident.
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, Belize Police Department
“Upon speaking to the proprietor of the resort, information was passed to them that about eleven-thirty a.m., Julio Escobar, a tour guide along with two other tour guides and some guests were in that area somewhere upstream in the river that began to rise rapidly.”
Escobar’s fellow tour guides tried to steer him to a shallow part of the river, but things went from bad to worse at that point.
“The tour guides attempted to move towards a more shallow area that they believed they could have crossed the river but Escobar disappeared. He was flung from his tube where he disappeared in the water.”
Caves Branch contracted Astrum Helicopter Services and quickly put together a search party to try to find Escobar, and after about two hours, his body was recovered not far from where he had disappeared. Escobar’s wife and son were too distraught to talk to us. His boss, Ian Anderson, said he preferred to talk after the funeral. Oscar Carbajal, a fellow tour guide at the ATM caves who knew Escobar, expressed sorrow at his passing.
Oscar Carbajal, Tour Guide, ATM Caves
“I knew the guide, not as a good good friend, but I knew him. It’s an unfortunate situation, but it can happen. We lost one of our comrades and condolences to the family. It can happen.”
Marion Ali
“You guys should be prepared for any scenario because you know that the rivers can rise very quickly, right?”
“Yes, yes, that’s right. You have to come out here prepared because if you don’t, bad things can happen very quickly, so you have to come out here prepared, gears, equipment, vests, everything.”
Escobar will be laid to rest on Wednesday. Marion Ali for News Five.