Hurricane Julia made landfall as a Category 1 Storm early Sunday in Nicaragua. And, as so many communities across Central America have learned, the storm's major damage was not so much with wind, but with rain. Southern Belize got the most of it: On Sunday, Placencia recorded 6 inches of rainfall, while Middlesex recorded 8. And then on Monday, the remnants of Julia moved west and dumped rains on the Cayo District, where 3 inches of rainfall came down in a hurry - and caused flash floods out west.
Now, those waters are rushing down towards Central Belize - and that's where a flooding Sibun river created the most dramatic scene so far - it happened today on the Coastal Road. Jules Vasquez has that story and an overview of some of the more dramatic scenes coming out of the dangerously wet weekend:
Strong currents coursing across the Coastal Highway washed this cargo truck off the road this morning - forcing the driver to seek higher ground on top of the truck.
And when it keeled over, this is the daring rescue that had to be executed across raging waters:
Rescuer
"Hold on good old byway... you got it? alright, tie it pon di vehicle. You just make sure you hold the belt good with your two hands."
A miracle rescue on a new road that is being pressed and worried by rushing waters - already the fresh pavement is being eroded - as witnessed by Will Maheia.
Wil Maheia
"And here are. Again you can see the side of the culvert and the road that was just paved maybe a few weeks or months ago, already is eating out. But this has to do with the small culverts. I don't know who were the engineers. I'm not an engineer, I must say, but it just seems like the culvert here is so small and its causing this massive break up of this new highway that has hardly been use."
Indeed, the Coastal culverts are under pressure, the waters gnawing at the pavement - but that has to do with the level of the floodwaters - the road was raised and the culverts are high, but the hydraulic pressure of all that water just cannot fit through the culvert.
And that's the case almost everywhere. In Monkey River this abandoned house pushed off its foundation was captured on Sunday, the raging sea and angry waves lapping up its demise. And while that is the coast, inland in the Cayo district the towns were brown, entire SUV's swallowed by fast rising flood waters as the Mopan and Macal burst their banks.
And while the scene may look romantic, water rarely gets this close to the Hawkesworth deck - although in Hurricane Eta it was higher.
Indeed, nature's great force can go from grotesque to strangely picturesque in just a few hundred feet.
And wide, turbid rivers rolling to the sea - while fearsome up close have a certain lyrical quality from above - reminding us powerfully of the restlessness of water.
A regards the events on the Coastal Road, an MIDH engineer told us, first, that the driver of that cargo truck missed the road, which is how he got stuck at the edge of the embankment and eventually toppled. And, regarding the culverts - the engineer says that's not the problem. He says area is now very flood prone because a berm was built to keep the tapirs and jaguars off the road, but it's also keeping the floodwater from running off.
