NEMO/Guatemalans scour Mopan River for flood victims
The western village of Arenal is shared by both Belize and Guatemala, divided by a football field. The residents on both sides generally enjoy healthy community life and last week, with the waters from the Mopan River rising, villagers began preparing for the floods that were to come. It ended fatally for one Guatemalan family that went to Melchor to shop for supplies for their small grocery store. Marion Ali trekked to Arenal, on both sides of the border, and has a report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Today members of the National Emergency Management Organisation, coupled with a Guatemalan rescue mission were combing the rushing Mopan River in Arenal Village to recover the bodies of the latest flood victims, who all lived on the Guatemalan side of Arenal, and who perished late Friday evening.
The body of seventeen year old Elsa Liliana Romero was the first to be recovered around midday on Sunday by a search team from Guatemala.
Anival Hernandez, Guatemalan Rescuer
“The body of the teenage girl was on some branches and her elbow was showing. We found her body about a kilometer from the Hammock Bridge here. I feel like the other two bodies might be right here in the same general area too.”
Henry Barillo, Guatemalan Rescuer
“We are looking for the rest of the bodies. Two more people are missing. Yesterday we found a body this side at about a mile. A little girl and a lady are missing and we are trying to find them. They were coming towards this side; from that side to here.”
Maritza Barrera lives on the Belizean side of the village and was nearby when the drowning occurred.
Maritza Barrera, Was Near Drowning Scene
“I went near the river when I heard that somebody was drowning ad I saw all the people running towards the river so I went to see.”
Marion Ali
“So they were crossing in a canoe and what?”
Maritza Barrera
“Yes, apparently they went shopping and in the afternoon they were coming back and the mother, the daughter and the grand daughter were coming on the boat and it flipped. Men from the Belizean side they went behind them on a boat but they couldn’t do anything. They went to rescue them but they couldn’t.”
Marion Ali
“What about the guy who was steering the canoe?”
Maritza Barrera
“Well, the guy, he was injured. He tried to save one of the people who were riding on the boat but he couldn’t do anything. He got injured on his back.”
Still missing are: six year old Estephany Diana Ortiz, the niece of Elsa Romero, and Tomasa Mendez, the grandmother of little Estephany and mother of Romero.
Today the Cayo District’s search and rescue mission, headed by William Swan, joined the effort to recover the bodies.
William Swan, Volunteer Search & Rescue Mission, Cayo
“We are sending a vessel from the Belize side. We will start here in Arenal along with members from the Arenal area Guatemala side. We’re doing a joint force right to see if we can recover these bodies that went missing. So what we’re doing, we have a vessel on the way right now that we’ll put in the water here in Arenal on the Guatemala side and we’ll have them go down this river along with their members of the Guatemala side to assist with our area so that they can say that—they cant say we didn’t do a joint effort and we put a joint effort into it. I asked them to let two of their people go along with my people to do the work here on the river bank and the river. What happened now the Guatemalan authority say they have some guys diving to see if they see the body in the river.”
Today News Five went to the family home of the three victims and spoke with the shopkeeper, Marisol Flores, who is trying to cope with the loss of her friends.
Marisol Flores, Family Friend
“The family had to go and buy for the business and it was urgent that she go and buy wire for the fence. It’s very sad because I never thought that after being with them this tragedy would happen. I’m only here today because the family went to Melchor to investigate what’s going on there; what they are doing with the search for their bodies.”
Today we found people living on the Arenal side of the river still crossing to the Melchor side using a portion of the hammock bridge, which the flood destroyed last week. But because there are no other means of crossing the dangerous Mopan River, to avert any further misfortunes, Benque Viejo Town Mayor, Marconi Sosa has offered to ferry people across the river by boat. Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.
Meanwhile, the body of the other Nigerian who drowned at the Kendal crossing last week, Adulgafar Taye Bello was recovered on Sunday. Mujeedat Olasunbo Biobaku, who was accompanying Bello in the canoe heading for Punta Gorda, was retrieved from the Sittee River shortly after the incident on Wednesday.
