News Five has been able to confirm that a Police driver from Roaring Creek, Adison Gillett, has been charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a fifteen year minor. He was taken to Belmopan Magistrate’s Court for formal arraignment on Wednesday and has been remanded until September thirtieth. And while details are sketchy, we have also confirmed […]
Belmopan Police are also investigating an incident which occurred on Thursday night in which Police Corporal Derin Mariano, assigned to the Mobile Interdiction Team, was badly beaten by another MIT officer, Corporal Jamir Casanova. Multiple sources today confirmed to News Five that there is a measure of conflict between officers because there is intervention to […]
Hurricane Earl drenched Belize on Wednesday night packing ferocious winds of up to eighty miles per hour. The hurricane made landfall after midnight near Belize City and moved westward. The city and the rest of the Belize District felt the full brunt of the storm which caused water levels to rise significantly. Residents experienced water […]
Today, the Belize City Council mobilized immediately after the hurricane and began cleanup efforts in the Old Capital. Debris, trees, zinc from roofs and other objects are littering the streets. Mayor Darrell Bradley says that with help from the B.D.F., the city will return to normalcy. Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor “If you could […]
City folks began bracing up for the storm since Wednesday morning. Visitors evacuated the islands. Hundreds moved to shelters in both the north and south sides of the city. More than a thousand persons left their homes for safer ground. But many others chose to remain where they were, putting their lives at risk when […]
The weather system also caused three barges to run aground near the Belize City harbor. This morning, the B.S.I. vessel collided near the Baron Bliss Lighthouse and remained there until just before midday when the Swing Bridge was swung to allow for a tugboat to pull the barge away. CEMO Coordinator Phillip Willoughby told News […]
Also hard hit were communities north of Belize City, including Vista Del Mar and Ladyville. Who would have believed that a category one storm, and barely that, could have wreaked such havoc – winds with the intensity to tear off roofs and bring down homes, and surges of five feet plus in certain areas? By […]
The Belize River Valley also experienced the downpour of the hurricane and residents are not bracing for impending floods. Like in other communities in the path of Earl, damages were sustained to houses and livestock and there is the potential for further losses as the days go by. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports. Isani […]
Today, Prime Minister Dean Barrow called a press conference to update the public on all things Earl – from the damage caused in various sectors to the appeal for relief. He started, quite rightly, by paying tribute to stakeholders who played a vital role before and during the storm, particularly the Police Department, B.D.F. and […]
Earlier today, our News Five team spoke to NEMO Coordinator Clare Moody at NEMO’s Headquarters in Belmopan. Although the storm has shifted its trajectory north, NEMO continues in a state of preparedness. Moody outlines what has been put in place to weather Hurricane Earl. Clare Moody, NEMO Coordinator “We prepare from season to season. […]
Tropical Storm Earl was upgraded to a category one hurricane this afternoon at three o’clock having reached maximum winds at seventy-five miles per hour. It is forecasted that the first hurricane to head for Belize in this season, will strengthen to eighty miles per hour and landfall is expected later tonight in the area of […]
The latest NEMO advisory was received at six o’clock. It states the following. Hurricane Earl is centered near Latitude seventeen point one north Longitude, eighty six point zero, west or about one hundred and three miles east-southeast of Half Moon Caye, one hundred and forty-one miles east-southeast of San Pedro Ambergris Caye, one hundred and […]
One of the biggest challenges being experienced at this hour is the movement of people to safe ground. NEMO states that there is reluctance by persons to evacuate their homes. In the areas where the hurricane is expected to hit, the residents are refusing to move to shelters. Clare Moody, NEMO Coordinator “One of […]
In Belize City, residents stocked up on food and other necessities to tidy them over the hurricane. Gas stations, supermarkets and hardware stores were abuzz was activity in preparation for Hurricane Earl. Some of those that were not at the stores transferred to shelters. CEMO Coordinator, Phillip Willoughby is in the thick of things. So […]
On Tuesday, we showed you the Krooman Lagoon area of Belize City where residents were resisting pleas to move to escape the projected flooding. Last October, the area was most affected after heavy rains; up to three hundred families were unable to leave the area after the heavy rains; the coastguard and CEMO had to […]
Tropical Storm Earl has formed in the Caribbean Sea and is expected to make landfall in Belize on Wednesday night after inundating portions of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands through tonight. Earl is the first Atlantic basin named storm since late June. The tropical storm which is gaining strength and momentum roughly four hundred miles […]
With Tropical Storm Earl approaching the country, preparations are well underway to counter the effects of the storm. Today, CEMO/NEMO were have been meeting with the relevant agencies, putting in place what is necessary to provide shelter and prevent casualties. One area that is expected to flood is at Krooman Lagoon in the city. That’s […]
In Corozal, a total of ten shelters have been identified. Personnel from the District Emergency Management Organization are in communication with residents in flood prone areas; making preparations for an evacuation should it become necessary. News Five spoke by phone with Willard Levy this evening and he informed that the DEMO team in Corozal has […]
Turning to political matters….on Monday, the Prime Minister announced a small reshuffle of his Cabinet, in effect taking only the Police Department away from John Saldivar who now becomes the Minister of Defense. He has expressed a hope that this will put an end to what has been a bizarre saga, but that hope seems […]
We were able to bring you the most significant morsels in Monday’s lengthy conference, but tonight we can shine somewhat of a spotlight on the players in the reshuffle. The Prime Minister has referred to Senator Minister Godwin Hulse as his firefighter who has been sent into extremely corrupt ministries to create some sort of […]
And just as Hulse enjoys the full support of the Prime Minister, so does Attorney General and now Minister of Natural Resources, Vanessa Retreage. She entered the political forefront in November 2015, but Barrow says she has been blazing a trail. Prime Minister Dean Barrow “She has been a splendid Attorney General. I worried […]
The A.G. will have her work cut out for her in the Ministry of Natural Resources, as she had and still has at the Vital Statistics Department which falls within her portfolio. Vital Statistics has been allowed to operate as another hotbed of corruption and incompetence, seemingly without check, balance or supervision. The birth certificate […]
Retreage is expected to be savior number two at the Ministry of Natural Resources, following up on the foundation set by savior number one, Godwin Hulse. As a point of interest, former Minister of Natural Resources Gaspar Vega was seated front and center at the press conference on Monday. We can’t imagine that he was […]
On Friday, on his return from the U.S., Prime Minister Dean Barrow stated clearly that he had not reached the point where he would move on Minister John Saldivar as a consequence of his relationship with accused murderer William Mason. But today he did. The reports of a reshuffle started circulating last night, and grew […]
On the face of it, the move may appear to be little more than a slap on the wrist – to improve the optics of the situation, to borrow a term from the PM. For Saldivar, though, the optics and substance of the shuffle are bad – perhaps even a death blow for his dream […]
