Flooding in Orange Walk Villages

It has been more than a year since the deadly floods caused by Tropical Storm Arthur and Tropical Depression Sixteen struck the country. Thirteen lives were lost and millions of dollars worth of damages were inflicted on personal and public property. While it has been a relatively quiet hurricane season thus far, the recent rains are forcing northern residents to face those fears of floods as waters began to rise as early as four this morning in Carmelita and Trial Farm Villages in the Orange Walk District. The safety of residents is being threatened and five families have been evacuated from their homes due to water rising more than three feet. NEMO Orange Walk has been activated to monitor the situation. A News Five crew headed north and spoke with NEMO point man Elodio Aragon and those affected by the floods.

Elodio Aragon, Coordinator, NEMO Orange Walk
“We managed to evacuate two families and they have gone to staying with members of their family. So Carmelita is ok, but coming down the road you might have seen a lot of the houses having a lot of water right all around. But that’s the situation and I believe the people in Carmelita have already become accustomed to this. But for Trial Farm, it’s worse in the sense that even though last year we did a great amount of work in trying to ensure that the drainage system is in place and everything, this year again, it seems Trial Farm has been hit again. The Black Creek Area, that is in bad shape right now. I would state that the whole week we have been having rains off and on, but since yesterday, the rains really came down very hard. And the whole of today it has been raining—it just eased off like half an hour ago. So the water has been steadily raising over the whole week, especially in the last few days and now it has threatened the eastern part of the village. As a matter of fact if you would go there, you would notice that some of the houses have a lot of water already and we are trying to take out the people from there. There is more houses under water and we have evacuated three families and there will possibly be more, probably in the next hour.”

Alberto Jones, Evacuated from Home
“We mi di sleep and then my baby started to cry and suddenly we wake up and the water mi done deh the raise and me tell my gial mek ih get up. And then my gial bawl and she said ‘Beto’ look pan the ground, the water di raise.”

Duane Moody
“Water was inside the house?”

Alberto Jones
“Yes, ih mi done raise already—bout two foot height and from there I come out and I tell she mek we try tek out the TV and the stereo so we wah ker it upstairs. So then wah lee bit more mi left before it reach the mattress. And then when we gone ker the thing deh upstairs and we come down back, the mattress get all we up and this and that. So afterwards, me tell my gial mek we try come out before the baby drop and the baby get drowned or something.”

Delone Flores, Affected by Flooded
“Ih mi high, must be over my knee, mi chicken they can’t get out, mi toilet as you can see yonder so. Mi neighbor cross deh, well they get wet. So we need some help dah back yah.”

Duane Moody
“How high would you seh the water rose?”

Delone Flores
“The water usually dah bout three feet or something.”

Duane Moody
“When did it start to rise?”

Delone Flores
“Musi like before day when the rain start hard then the water start rise. But as I seh we really need some help dah back yah.”

Elodio Aragon
“The advice we can give them is that whenever they see they are threatened they can contact us in Orange Walk at the town centre. Give us a call tell us what’s happening so that we too can be prepared.”

Hydrologist Rudolph Williams of the National Met Service says that the flooding is due to drainage problems and the heavy rainfall caused by a trough that is over the western and northern parts of the country. Williams said that more than three inches of rain fell over the last twenty-four hours and more can be expected over the weekend.