In news from the region, on Sunday night Hurricane Michelle battered the island of Cuba with winds of more than one hundred and thirty miles per hour and substantial amounts of rain. It is estimated tonight that five people died after the buildings they were using as shelters collapsed. The hardest hit parts of the […]
TD-15 is no more. Tropical Storm Michelle is now just north west of Cabo Gracias a Dios Nicaragua. Michelle, still moving slowly north at two miles an hour, packing winds of 40 miles an hour. The storm is bringing substantial amounts of rain to several countries. Her base is so big that she is affecting […]
It’s the biggest economic activity in the Toledo District and one of the nation’s major earners of foreign exchange. But in less than ninety minutes on the night of October eighth, Belize’s banana industry was put out of business. Today, journalists were given a tour of the affected areas and as Janelle Chanona found out, […]
Not all the recent damage to Belize has been done by wind and water. On Monday evening fire gutted a family’s residence on Lizarraga Avenue in King’s Park and the victims are no less devastated than any resident of Stann Creek or Toledo. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting It is believed the fire started in the living […]
As Hurricane Iris neared the coast of Belize and even in the immediate aftermath of her landfall, the public’s attention was focussed on the coastal communities of Placencia, Seine Bight and Independence. Not only were these villages accessible, but they were also familiar places to many Belizeans as tourist or business destinations. Their residents had […]
The last time Jacqueline Woods visited Monkey River, in 1998, it was to report on the erosion, which had mysteriously robbed the village of its once formidable beach. This time around, the people of Monkey River have lost more than just sand…and are lucky to be holding on to their lives. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting It […]
The first of two Belizean crewmembers who perished while aboard the dive boat Wave Dancer was buried this afternoon in Corozal. Eloisa Johnson, the boat’s cook, died with nineteen others on Monday night when the Wave Dancer capsized in the port of Big Creek while trying to ride out Hurricane Iris. Tonight, one member of […]
Relief efforts in the Stann Creek and Toledo districts continued to expand today as floodwaters recede on the Southern Highway and large amounts of supplies mobilised for distribution to stricken areas. Updated damage assessments by NEMO indicate that over four thousand houses were destroyed or significantly damaged with just under eleven thousand people left homeless. […]
Less than forty-eight hours after the one hundred and forty-five mile an hour winds and eighteen foot storm surge of Hurricane Iris laid waste to a forty mile wide strip of southern Belize, a well co-ordinated relief effort is beginning to gather steam. NEMO, after what appeared to be a slow start, has quickly established […]
On Tuesday, News 5’s Janelle Chanona and Rick Romero brought us the first look at the devastation on the Placencia Peninsula. Tonight their colleagues Jacqueline Woods and Brent Toombs are just back with an update from the same area. What they found is that despite an awkward start, the spirit of recovery is beginning to […]
The process of recovery now underway in southern Belize is the product of many different efforts. While the Government of Belize is mounting the largest single campaign, it is direct people to people contributions that have become crucial, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. One such arrangement has particular significance. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting […]
Tonight many families in both Belize and the United States continue to mourn those lost in the boating accident at Big Creek. There are twenty believed to be dead, including two Belizeans. As investigations continue to probe the cause of the accident, several questions remain unanswered, such as why the passengers and crew of the […]
The hurricane named Iris is now a memory, but for thousands of Belizeans in the southern third of the country, those memories will be causing pain for a long time to come. To briefly recap, Iris made landfall around seven-thirty Monday night with the eye passing just north of Monkey River. Maximum sustained winds reached […]
When Hurricane Iris first appeared as a tropical depression and later as a tropical storm, it looked like it would wreak its havoc on Jamaica, Cuba, Cayman or Mexico…and even when it clearly headed for Belize, the landfall of choice seemed to be San Pedro or Belize City. So what happened? Deputy Chief Meteorologist Justin […]
In the fourth day following what is believed to be the worst act of terrorism in modern history, there is still no word on five Belizeans still believed missing: four in the wreckage of the World Trade Center and one in the smouldering ruins of the Pentagon. Relatives of Alva Jeffries, the Belizean who worked […]
In related developments, the government has ordered all national flags on public buildings to be flown at half-mast from today through Tuesday, the eighteenth. The measure is being taken to honour all those dead and missing in the terror attacks and to show solidarity with the people and government of the United States of America […]
The massive terrorist attack on the United States of America continues to be felt here in Belize. According to Ambassador Stuart Leslie, chief of Belize’s mission to the United Nations, five Belizeans remain missing in the wake of the disaster: four in Manhattan and one in Washington, D.C. The missing person in Washington is Philip […]
More than a day after as yet unknown terrorists declared war on the United States of America, thousands of people in Manhattan and at the Pentagon in Virginia remain unaccounted for and feared dead. Tonight comes word from our diplomatic mission in New York that among these numbers are several Belizeans. As he did yesterday, […]
It has been an even more trying time for Alva Jeffries’ family in Belize. According to family members living in Belize City, Jeffries arrived at work at seven on Tuesday morning and they have not heard from her since. They say even though her office was located just below the section where the first plane […]
Hundreds of travellers to and from Belize remain stranded by the closure of U.S. airspace. Reports from resorts on the cayes and mainland, indicate that most visitors have realised that there is nothing they can do to influence events and are taking advantage of the extra few days holiday to see more sights or just […]
If the scenario that unfolded today in the United States of America was part of a script for a proposed movie, it would be rejected as being too farfetched. But the hijacking of four large U.S. airliners and the subsequent crashing of three of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and […]
Belizeans in the United States were not our only citizens effected by the disaster. Because of the closure of U.S. airspace, all flights in and out of that country were cancelled, including those to and from Belize. This meant that Belizeans and visitors wanting to travel today were forced to make other plans. News 5’s […]
Another facility in Belize, which felt the impact of terrorist attacks on the United States, was that country’s embassy here. The embassy, located in Belize City, was closed sometime this morning. Officials there reached by News 5 declined to comment, saying that they would be issuing a press release later in the day. That release […]
Meteorologists and residents of all six districts are tonight carefully monitoring rivers and creeks as they continue to rise. Early this evening, the Macal River was ten feet over the wooden bridge connecting Santa Elena and San Ignacio, but the good news is that upstream at Mollejon, levels appear to be dropping. Chief Meteorologist Carlos […]
Hurricanes and tropical storms may be a fact of life in Belize, but how many times does a community have to be flooded out before its residents decide to move? That’s the question Jacqueline Woods asked the people of Douglas Village in the Orange Walk District as they watched the Rio Hondo rise higher and […]
