Flooding in Rural and Urban Belize

For the past two weeks, heavy rains had been putting a damper on villages along the George Price Highway in the west. But one of the main effects of the constant downpour is that the waters run off to lower lying areas in the country. Rivers, lagoons and ponds begin to swell and as you travel along the highway you would see water levels up and rippling on to the pavements. Since last Tuesday reports have been coming from Rural Belize that water levels have been rising and today News Five went checking for floods. Flowers Bank has several parts of the road that in under water with its Big Creek Bridge inundated. Children have not been able to go to school since last week as smaller vehicles and buses, says Chairman of the village, Clinton Rhaburn, are unable to pass.

Clinton Rhaburn, Chairman, Flowers Bank Village

“We have about six families where there is about three four inches of water around their houses. In the village, there about a stretch about twenty-five yards between Mister Anthony Robinson house and Miss Sharon Robinson House. Then yo come out by the center, yo go by the church yard and the water is flowing over the bank there about four five inches also. When yo hit the main road leaving the village. As you leave from the center about two hundred and fifty yards, yo have a water stretch to a bridge we call Deep Hole. The deepest part is about a foot and change. Then yo come down the road over the bridge; that bridge hadn’t had water over it. But as yo pass the bridge, there is water again…almost two foot in some places and yo come out the water and yo go now to this bridge we call Big Creek. And that’s the bridge that is so exciting because it has a foot or change ah water on it. And the approach also has about ten feet on each side and then on the bridge the water is so heavy running. Several people have went there and don’t want to go to the village because of this bridge. So that is the most exciting part of the road.”

Clinton Rhaburn

Reporter

“Right now as it is, small vehicles can’t pass by the Big Creek Bridge.”

Clinton Rhaburn

“Yeah. It kinda hard for us because most of us have small vehicles to go in and come out. It is a little problem but we are trying to see how we could get over it.”

Reporter

“Do you find that students can’t get out from the village to go to school?”

Clinton Rhaburn

“Well what happen, the department look like they don’t want the school bus to cross the bridge. So no school in Flowers Bank the whole of last week and it seems to be that the same thing will happening over this week because the water hasn’t started to fall (recede) yet. It might start to fall sometime ina this week.”

In other communities such as Crooked Tree, the causeway is flooded, while here in Belize City, the Belama Phase Four area is also under water.