Crooked Tree residents face major flood
Our crew has just returned from Crooked Tree and Jose Sanchez reports that the causeway is covered by over five feet of water. As a result Crooked Tree may as well be a Caye, although the water surrounding the village is fresh, not salty. After taking a boat to the village, we spoke to a number of residents who are for the moment calm, but fearful of what the rising waters may do.
Gweneth Tillett
“Right now the whole kitchen is under water. We have to move out and by night we have to go somewhere because the water is already around our house. We already packed up our things because we have to move too.”
Leland Tillett
“Well I lost practically everything right now. My house is about 4 feet off water and right now I have about 1 foot inside the house. I don’t have anywhere to stay tonight and the kids are in the house, my wife is in the house and right now we are in a really bad position. We have to sleep out of doors like dogs tonight because we don’t have anywhere to stay. That’s a really bad position right now.”
Vincent Jones
“Well my house have at least 3 feet of water right now. 3 of my beds are floating right now. One mattress, is already under water, 3 zinc (lost) during the storm.”
Gerald Tillett
“The whole of my house is under water, about 2 feet high inside. Everything inside is wet. I can’t put them any higher, they are on the table, the mattress is soaking in the water, and so I moved to higher ground this side. I had about 2 plots of pumpkin, they were already bearing big pumpkins, they’re all under water. Cane, about 300 root of okra just about to blossom, everything underwater.”
Dean Tillett, Treasurer, Crooked Tree Village Council
“We’re here issuing our first supplies that we received from the Belize Audubon Society and for those we are very grateful. The village is in chaos right now as far as flooding as you can see, and this is just the preliminary stage of what we will be going through within the next 3 months I should expect. Currently where the water is, the level of the water, has already exceed what Mitch had done and we are very, very concern. We have been doing evacuations and all that for some families that have been affected by flooding. There is a lot that we need to get done here as far as the Village Council is concern in order for us to really put things together here in Crooked Tree.”
Jose Sanchez
“How fast is the water rising?”
Dean Tillett
“I cannot really give a direct figure on that, but I think its about 6 inches to a foot within every 24 hours. That is a massive rate and we’re really, really going to see some devastating effects from the flood this time.”
Donald Tillett, Belize Audubon Society
“We from the Belize Audubon Society are working with the communities. We say that it was a necessity, and it still is a necessity to help the people of Crooked Tree, Maypen and Biscayne, Lemonal also and we are hoping to give supplies and medical supplies to all these villages. We started with Crooked Tree today and tomorrow we will be doing the other villages. We hope by providing these necessities to the villagers we hope that they will appreciated what we are doing and learn to appreciate what Audubon is doing for the whole country of Belize.”
Reports are that the flood waters are still rising.
