Belizeans hold their breath as Wilma slides north

At this hour it looks like we’ll dodge the bullet, but Belizeans are still holding their breath tonight as the most powerful hurricane in history churns past our doorstep en route to a rendezvous with the Yucatan coast or Gulf of Mexico. There remains a small possibility for some major impact in Belize, and if that comes to pass, the most likely target is San Pedro, Ambergris Caye… which is where we begin our coverage with News Five’s Jacqueline Woods.

Jacqueline Woods
“Hurricane Wilma is still projected to move to the north of us, but people on the island are taking no chances. We’re not sure just how many people have voluntarily evacuated, but Tropic Air, Maya Island Air, and the island’s water taxis have been busy taking residents and tourists to the mainland.

Area Resident #1
“Well we live here many years ago. We do mainly caretaker work up north side, so we don’t trust and she does not want to stay, she is afraid too, you know.”

Jacqueline Woods
“You are not feeling comfortable right now?”

Area Resident #2
“No, because whenever they say it’s time to evacuate, the crowd that is out here, you cannot even get passage then, you have to maybe go back home.”

This morning the San Pedro Emergency Committee became fully operational at a meeting at the Town Hall. There, members were briefed on the storm and prepared themselves in the event the hurricane does affect the island.

Jim Janmohamed, Operations Officer, S.P. Emergency Committee
“The slowness of it is really scaring me and I am?I think that the luckiest thing that we have is that reef that is out there, so it would give me a little more time before the boats will not be able to manoeuvre inside the reef to Belize City. Luckily, all we have to do is travel on the inside of the reef to Belize City. But even then that can become rough later on, so that’s the only thing that is going for me right now, nothing else.”

This morning the seas started getting rough and large swells were visible from outside the barrier reef. The Belize Defence Force Maritime Wing has been closely monitoring the situation and we accompanied the crew out to the reef… which was already being battered by the rising wall of water.

Cpl. Ortencio Pop, Belize Maritime Wing
“Those waves are about six to eight feet, that’s over the reef.”

Jacqueline Woods
“And you expect to get even larger?

Cpl. Ortencio Pop
“Maybe now and again it will come in with some big swells. As I said, it is six to eight feet, but now and again it comes up to that eight or over.”

Jacqueline Woods
“So definitely no small crafts supposed to be out here?”

Cpl. Ortencio Pop
“Actually that should be no small crafts should be travelling outside right now.”

Jacqueline Woods
“And inside the reef, what’s the situation like?”

Cpl. Ortencio Pop
“Inside the reef right now, the waves are about three to four feet, with now and again the swells coming in.”

While on the water, our attention was drawn to six Mexican navy vessels that were making it to safe harbour due to the rough seas. The boats, which were heading to the Rio Hondo, had to access one of the reef’s channels to get to their destination. And while the Mexican Navy is headed for safe harbour, San Pedranos were making their own preparations.

Jim Janmohamed
“We’ve been on to this since the weekend. In fact, the committee was put on standby on Friday, so we’ve been watching it and every member of the committee knows their duties, they know what to do. We met again yesterday to make sure everybody’s in the right frame of mind. And it’s a proven fact that the committee that I have are really excellent people, so they do care about their community quite a lot, so we are well prepared.”

San Pedro may be affected by tropical storm force winds that the committee believes will not cause extensive damage.

Jim Janmohamed
“We may be hit by fifty mile an hour winds, which will be tropical storm force winds. And problems with that, we can handle fifty mile an hour winds; we have done so in the past, most of our buildings are very good. This morning I went on the air to tell that locals that you have an abode that cannot withstand that, then it’s time for you to move.”

The Belize Weather Bureau has been on alert for some time, tracking the storm’s movement. It’s Wilma’s slow forward progress that has forecasters feeling a bit nervous.

Carlos Fuller, Chief Meteorologist
“The level of uncertainty is increased. If it were a hurricane like Iris moving at twenty-five miles per hour, there was no way that we gonna change its direction. You have to slow down and then change. I would love to see Wilma pick up and go faster than ten miles per hour and then I’ll be fairly confident, but at seven miles per hour there is still some uncertainty in that track.”

Chief Meteorologist Carlos Fuller says despite the fact that hurricanes formed so late in the season generally do track north, contrary to what computer modules dictate, he believes this system will stay on the projected path.

Carlos Fuller
“The guiding pattern is an area of high pressure over the Gulf of Mexico and over the Bahamas. And there’s a weakness in that high where this system seems to want to be going through. If however, one of these were to become stronger than the other, for example if the high over the Gulf of Mexico got stronger then it would take a more westward path. But that does not seem to be the consensus of the modules.”

Belizeans will be relieved to know that the Met Office radar has been operational for two weeks. This will greatly assist the forecasters in keeping tabs on the hurricane once it is within two hundred miles.

Carlos Fuller
“Well certainly, with having gotten the radar working we can now detect the rainfall associated with Wilma. And that is certainly going to assist us to give us some ideas of if there is torrential rainfall occurring and what part of the country is experiencing the rainfall. If in fact Wilma does move due west and comes within a couple hundred miles of the country, then our radar will be able to pick it up because that is really the effective range of a weather radar.”

Bottom line: all Belizeans are being advised to remain vigilant. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

At news time a tropical storm warning remained in effect for costal areas from Belize City north to the Mexican border.