Iguana Creek Bridge Remains under Water
In the West, the Iguana Creek Bridge remains underwater. The Belize River is slowly receding since the second flood but the bridge remains impassable for vehicles. The bridge links communities such as Buena Vista and Spanish Lookout to the George Price Highway. Residents of the communities are now using the Farmers Express Road build and maintained by the Spanish Lookout community. Cattle Traders like Joseph Friessen say that the flooding has affected their business.
Joseph Friessen Jr., Cattle Trader, Spanish Lookout
“The river is flooding right here if you can see and it is blocking the bridge for now almost a week and the vehicles have to go around to the farms express road to go in and road from Spanish Lookout and also we can go and take another road, the Bullet Tree Road which has been very bad condition in the rains and so thank god we have this road that is giving up access to Spanish Lookout, the Farms Express Road which is built by the Spanish Lookout Community and that the access we have to Spanish Lookout right now.”
Joseph Friessen Jr.
Hipolito Novelo
“Is this the worst you have seen the river flood?”
Joseph Friessen Jr.
“Well this is not the worst flood. The worst was two weeks ago. That was the highest flood that we have seen in my lifetime here. It was thirty five feet above the bridge and the bridge was close for about ten days for the traffic to cross. At the moment it is almost about one week almost that it has been closed now since the second flood and this time around the flood only came up fifteen feet above the bridge.”
Hipolito Novelo
“It is going down slowly.”
Joseph Friessen Jr.
“It is going down very slowly. It is still going down very slowly.”
Hipolito Novelo
“So talk to us about the cattle and getting the cattle out of Spanish Lookout. You use the back road. Is it more expensive for you?”
Joseph Friessen Jr.
“Well it is definitely more mileage and a lot more rougher road to travel so it takes a lot more time and more wear and tear for your vehicle because of the rough road that we have to ravel, definitely more expense.”
