Burrell Boom Road closed, water continues to rise
Water levels in the rural areas of the Belize District are at alarming heights as flood waves filter into the Belize River and bordering areas since the rains began three weeks ago.
A stretch of the Boom-Hattieville Road is submerged in over four feet of water. In the village, the main entrance between the bridge and the police station is under six feet of water. Children play in the waters, while adults use tractors to haul their trucks to land. With the roads to the village closed, some residents have lost their entire crop while others say that they have lost a lot of business.
Doyle Gillett, Manager, D & A Construction
“Firstly, we can’t deliver anything to the Northern Highway, only in Belize City, if we don’t go all the way around through the portion of the bypass to Hattieville and then on to the Western Highway. Most of the customers won’t pay for that haulage because the distance is far so we lose that business. The students that go to Belize City have to go around this way. Generally, the bus picks up students along the Northern Highway too and they can’t do that. It just gives us a big slow down. This flooding with the rains before, we had a massive slow down because we can’t work much when it’s raining hard and now the flood has cut off the road access to the Northern Highway. So this has slowed down my business—mine and many other—considerably.”
Duane Moody
“What would you say is the cost that it’s incurring to your business?”
Doyle Gillett
“It probably slashed it in half in the last two weeks and now I will have to watch this week and see what is in because this is the first time we really can’t pass since this morning.”
David Wade, Rural Development Officer, Belize District
“From since Monday we have been back and forth on Belize River, especially in Maypen area, appealing to people to move their livestock but for some reason they are very reluctant in doing so. Presently, what is going on, some of them their livestock is in water. Like this morning Ms. Sedacey’s livestock was in about three to four feet of water but thank God we got them out in time. We have farmers that have lost their crops, everything: rice, corn, root crops everything. We are actually doing evacuation of livestock and. We have others that are in charge of shelters and doing evacuation of people. We do evacuation of people also when we find people that need to be removed. We have a family right around the corner here, the Seguros, they have had to be removed from there and they are staying with families.”
Duane Moody
“How high did the water rise for them?”
David Wade
“About three feet or so.”
Duane Moody
“Inside their house?”
David Wade
“Yeah.”
The water levels are intended to rise even higher and with that caution and precaution are advised. NEMO estimates that more than three hundred persons are in shelters, eighty-four villages have been hit by the rains and flooding, sixteen thousand persons have felt the impact of flood waters and tens of thousands of acres of farmlands have also been affected.
