Unprecedented Flooding in Carmelita Village
Over ten inches of rain fell over the Orange Walk and Corozal districts on Saturday and Sunday. This led to severe and unprecedented flooding in several communities within those districts. The intense rainfall came as a result of a low pressure system that passed over the country. Carmelita Village in Orange Walk District was one of the hardest hit communities, with at least twenty-five families affected by flood waters. While the flood waters receded within two hours, many families in the community are stilling attempting to recover from the lose they experienced. News Five’s Paul Lopez was in Carmelita today. He filed the following report.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Rain, rain and more rain. A weather system that passed over the country this weekend brought with it heavy rain falls. In northern Belize on Sunday afternoon, some areas, including Santa Marta and Carmelita, experienced up to a foot and a half of rainfall, resulting in severe flooding.
David Fernandez
David Fernandez, Resident, Carmelita Village
“The flooding and the rain start like around four and like five thirty to six water start to come up like crazy and gone in ah the house like almost twelve inches high eena the house.”
Paul Lopez
“So what kind of damages happened in the house?”
David Fernandez
”Well, all the electric tools weh mih een deh get wet up, and all the groceries my mommy have there, everything.”
David Fernandez and his parents live along the Phillip Goldson Highway in Carmelita Village, just a few miles outside of Orange Town. His elderly father has been bed-ridden for several years. Fernandez and his brothers had to assist their parents to make a daring escape by canoe when flood waters began entering their home.
David Fernandez
“We borrow that canoe to take out my daddy because he really sick. He can’t walk. It was really rough because this dah the first time we experience that, a flood like that nuh.”
Leonel Gallego
Leonel Gallego, Resident, Carmelita Village
“Ih come fast, and then one hour time it tek fih guh up and then one hour time ihtek, fast to ih gone down. We start to put up all we things up pan the table and start to move mek we nuh get wet, all fih wee things. The fridges carry it up, the sofa put in pan top of the chairs. When we see the other things dah back ih done get wet, so the washing machine cause we neva got time. Meanwhile we the move out deh yah things yah the water start to go up to.”
Leonel Gallego and his family are neighbors with the Fernandezes. Gallego’s children sought refuge from the flood on top a bunk bed inside their home.
Leonel Gallego
“We stay up deh pan the bunk bed up deh, four ah we. First time I experience this eena this land weh I the stay yah fih twenty five years. I nuh know why this happen. It could be too much rain weh come. I don’t know.”
Audrey Pyne
Audrey Pyne, Resident, Carmelita Village
“I stand on the porch and just watched the water coming and coming and coming and I could not believe in two hours and maybe thirty something minutes how high the water got. I start getting worried. I moved my truck. I put it on the side. Next thing I hear something, look and the gate was gone. Next thing hear something else, this side gate was gone. I stand out here and I just watch the fence fall. The back fence went first, then this fence. The amount of water, the height of water just boiling, boiling, boiling, all sorts of things.”
During the flood, Audrey Pyne’s neighbors helped her with saving chickens from a coop that was about to be washed away by the strong current. In the process of rescuing the chickens, Pyne says that the rushing water swept away one of her neighbors who almost drowned.
Audrey Pyne
“One of the neighbors almost drowned. I was screaming for the other one to help him. He was in the chicken house, and with rains and the thunders, I guess he can’t hear me and I was just like hoping that he catch on to something. He managed to get washed over into the other yard and I guess he kinda hold on to a tree and the chickens were just floating away.”
Reporting for News Five I am Paul Lopez.
