Flood waters rise to alarming levels in Cayo
There is plenty news to report tonight but we start first with the persistent rains over the weekend. There is severe flooding in the west and it looks like few will be spared by tropical depression sixteen that dissipated last Thursday but its remnants are sweeping across Belize. Moving from the south and now heading to the north, the rains have been torrential and non-stop. Over the weekend, the rains fell over the Cayo District bringing water levels to alarming highs, according to observers, not seen since Hurricane Greta in 1978. With bridges submerged under water, and roads impassable, residents had to be moved to shelters. The Iguana Creek Bridge was completely under water while the Roaring Creek Bridge was accessible only by heavy vehicles and communities in the area were cut off.
News Five’s Duane Moody reports from the western highway.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The heavy rainfall over the Cayo District and villages in the Belize River Valley terrain over the weekend was fast and furious causing the banks of the Mopan Belize River to substantially increase in water levels. Chief Meteorologist, Ramon Frutos explains what has been happening since Friday and says that the picture is not good over the next few days.
Ramon Frutos, Chief Meteorologist
“What we are noticing is that we have a decrease in rainfall since the past twelve hours during the night and this morning. However, we still have an area of low pressure east of Belize, about ninety miles east of Belize that has the tendency to move westwards. That’s what the modules are indicating and it also could develop slightly. However, that was more or less the picture that we were watching last night. This morning the modules are indicating that the low probably will not develop but will move across as an area of disturbed weather and as it moves across Belize it could produce rain over the next two days. So the modules are also indicating that this activity will be concentrated over central and northern Belize. But that does not preclude that activity won’t spread further south across the country because it’s a large area of disturbed weather offshore Belize that will probably be drifting westwards over the next two to three days.”
“So far, this system was predicted to move westwards. It did not really do that, it remained stationary over the weekend and over central Guatemala and produced quite a lot of rain; extensive rainfall over the entire area and that then resulted in a lot of water reaching the ground over Guatemala and the western slopes of the Mayan Mountains and all of that into the Chiquibul River and the Mopan river in Guatemala and in Belize and that’s the result of the extensive amount of water we are seeing on the ground at the moment. And all the water is moving down slowly because the Chalillo and Molejon are still spilling a bit this morning. At Chalillo, probably they are spilling about one meter over the spill rate and at Mollejon it’s about half a meter. So they are still spilling and water is still coming down. However, the water has no where to go because the Mopan River especially has a lot of water so they had like backwater in San Ignacio there. So that water will take some time to go down.”
Frutos says that the dams have prevented serious casualties.
Ramon Frutos
“At San Ignacio, the water peeked at nine point eighty-one meters. That was approximately thirty feet of water that went through there. You can convert that into volumes also but they need to know the speed of the water; how fast it was moving through a unit are and you can calculate the volume. But that was probably in excess of three thousand cubic meters per second was passing.”
Duane Moody
“Is this a record high?”
Ramon Frutos
“Oh no, we have had higher floods in the area of the country, for example during Hattie. What we notice here, if you notice the flood in San Ignacio, it was attenuated to a certain extent by the one of the river dams; first of all the Chalillo further up and the run of the river dam Mollejon. If those were not there, we definitely would have had much more extensive flooding in valley areas of San Ignacio and Bullet Tree and Branch Mouth. Because of the massive flow of water coming from Guatemala, that would have added to a very large flood if one of the river dams were not there. One of a sequence of flood waves past through San Ignacio in the afternoon yesterday or in the evening. That flood wave now has been heading into the Roaring Creek Area. It takes about nine or ten hours for it to reach so that is what they are experiencing. That flood wave or that crust is now moving through the Banana Bank and the Roaring Creek are and that is causing the backwater on the Roaring Creek to increase in height and hence the water levels increasing on the deck of the Roaring Creek Bridge this morning.”
Residents of Roaring Creek along the western highway either swam across to land, used canoes and others waddled through the waters.
Lincoln Gordon, Resident, Roaring Creek Village
“This is the highest I have ever seen it. I was told that in 1961 it went all the way over to the Texaco Gas Station. Whenever we had torrential flooding in the Cayo, the water would flood this area because this is the lowest area in the village of Roaring Creek. In terms of how long it normally takes to go down, it normally takes two or three days to go down but this is the longest I have ever seen it up and I am kinda worried because I don’t really know when it’s going down and if its gonna rise higher.”
With residents moving to shelter, there is the fear that unoccupied houses will be burglarized.
Alfonso Puerto, Resident, Roaring Creek Village
“As much as some people are trying to help, but some people notice to see if you left your home too and dah den di perpetrator wah have his way and because dehn no si nobody, dehn come and bruk inna yoh house. Di last time dehn inna mi house and I lost several things. It took me almost of seven thousand dollars in things—refrigerator, chainsaws, gun, lawnmower, you know different stuff. My last choice would be if water the wet mi foot up here on the floor.”
NEMO has been activated since Friday of last week and according to Cayo South Area Representative, help has been rendered to the Villagers.
Ramon Witz, Area Representative, Cayo South
“Basically, yes there are some families that houses have been evacuated and these people, we have been in touch with them and they have decided to go to relatives and friends. They did not want to go to shelter. I have been made to understand that NEMO’s policy is that if you go to a shelter, after three days the government will then have to help you out but prior to that people need to bring their own little provisions with them. There are some families that may need some help later on in terms of whatever damages they experienced, but of course, we can only do that after the water recedes.”
From Roaring Creek we headed to the Burrell Boom Village where the water level of the Belize River is already up by two feet. Rural Development Officer for the Belize District, David Wade says that they are prepared to evacuate, if there is a need.
David Wade, Rural Development Officer, Belize District
“The river is rising. It’s not coming too fast, but at this time the kind of rain that we’re getting, once the water from around Cayo starts coming in, it will eventually will probably raise another six inches or so or maybe even a foot. It all depends. I think the dams really are what is keeping that big bulk of water and that normal flood that we normally get in Belize.”
Duane Moody reporting for News Five.
