Two cat 5 storms dominated hurricane season 2007

Many Belizeans are breathing a little easier tonight as November thirtieth officially marks the close of hurricane season 2007. While this year wasn’t as active as originally predicted, the rare event of two category five storms developing in the Western Caribbean significantly impacted Belize. On August twenty-first, Hurricane Dean barrelled into northern Belize packing winds of a hundred and sixty-five miles an hour. The resulting residential, agricultural and infrastructural damage was later estimated at one hundred million dollars. Less than two weeks later, Belizeans then had to brace for Hurricane Felix, which threatened to hit the south. The storm eventually impacted Nicaragua and Honduras. This afternoon, the weather experts in Ladyville advised the public that while initial predictions were off, following advisories will be crucial to keeping loss of life and property to a minimum.

Dennis Gonguez, Forecaster
“We had Andrea early in May, I think it was May ninth, and that sort of set the stage that we were all excited and filled with this confidence that, yes, the predictions would come true for a very active season. However as the season went on, we sort of noticed that there was some changes, that the season would not be as active as predicted. … All the ingredients were there, the ocean surface temperature was high enough, everything was set that we had two category fives in the western Caribbean and no other part of the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico were there any other categorical fives this year.”

“We could use the off season to prepare ourselves for next year’s season so that we don’t make the same mistakes, we don’t make the same errors that we did and we could be better prepared for the 2008 hurricane season.”

Janelle Chanona
“So can we start eating our hurricane supplies now?”

Dennis Gonguez
“I just had some of the office supplies just a while ago.” (Laughs)

Initial predictions for Hurricane season 2008 will be made during the first week of December.