Hurricane Eta to Affect Belize; Flood Warnings in Effect

Ronald Gordon

While tropical cyclone watches and warning are not required for Belize, heavy rainfall is expected starting tonight. The latest advisory from the National Emergency Management Organization is that a flood watch is in effect for Cayo Belize, Stann Creek and Toledo districts. Severe flooding is expected for southern Belize. Chief Met Ronald Gordon says that residents must heed to these warnings.

Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist

“The impacts from that amount of rainfall is definitely flooding, flash flooding, could be widespread flooding over the south. There is also the possibility of landslides over mountainous terrains. And then apart from the rain, even though we are not going to be getting the strong hurricane or even tropical storm force winds, we do expect winds to become very dusty over the area. In fact, winds are already picking up as we speak. So we have upgraded the small craft caution that we had to a warning and what that means is that if you are out at sea and you are operating a small vessel that can capsize easily, under rough sea condition, we advise you to either seek safe harbour or remain in safe harbour if you are already onshore. Do not venture out to sea; the seas are going to become quite rough with the gusty winds that we are expecting.  NEMO has issued its second advisory on the system and one of the advises for residents, especially in southern Belize. You could extend it to the entire country, but especially for those in the south is that if you have assets that you want to secure from heavy rainfall and flooding, you should begin to protect those assets now; now is the time to do so. And when the flooding do start, we advise the residents not to venture out into flooded waters, not to go into rivers or streams that are flooded; not to attempt to cross highways or roads that are flooded and be on the safe side.”