Earlier you heard Chief Meteorological Officer Carlos Fuller tell us that San Pedro will be experiencing tropical storm force winds by tomorrow morning. But when 7NEWS visited the island late this afternoon, our team found that the storm seasoned residents were hardly in a hurry to evacuate. Alfonso Noble reports from San Pedro.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
As the surf began to pick up on San Pedro's shoreline late this afternoon, some thrill seekers were trying to surf the swells. And while there were those who tried to have fun as the outer bands of Hurricane Wilma were beginning to have an effect on the island, there were others making preparations to brace for at most tropical storm force winds. The man heading the island's response and preparedness is James Jan Mohammed.
James Jan Mohammed,
"We're more interested in the main storm pattern and which path its taking. The National Hurricane Center has predicted and up to now, even with all it's jiggling around, its doing all of that but eventually its keeping a track. If you look at a six hour time period the storm is taking the track that they predicted. Its varying a little but its going the way they predicted so we're hoping we'll be spared the hurricane and we will get the tropical storm force winds. At the moment it looks like we'll be hit by 50 miles per hour tropical storm force winds. Now if it happens that way we know we can take that because with Chantal we had that and we survived with no major problems. From this morning we have been advising people that if your home cannot take tropical storm force winds you should try to move in and a lot of them have moved."
But while there are those who are willing to move some by plane and others by water, there were those who were this evening a bit late in catching a water taxi out like this man who did not catch the last boat out of the island.
San Pedro Resident,
"I'm leaving San Pedro because my family is in Corozal and I need to be there."
Alfonso Noble,
You're leaving because of the hurricane?
San Pedro Resident,
"Yes."
Alfonso Noble,
Are you leaving because you being out here or because you fear for your family in Corozal?
San Pedro Resident,
"Well for me the important thing is my family, of course. For everybody our families are the most important thing but my reason to leave is because once you stay on San Pedro they'll be no way to leave."
Alfonso Noble,
I see the last boat just left. What are you going to do?
San Pedro Resident,
"I'm going to be here until the last option."
For people like him who were unable to move out Mohammed says the best suggestion is that they stay on the island and weather the storm.
James Jan Mohammed,
"The boats are leaving under correct times but because of the rough seas they wouldn't want to travel in the darkness. So I rather the captain
comes back in the daylight hours. I would rather them wait and leave on the first boat tomorrow. We have not decided on a mass evacuation at this moment because of what I told you, if it is a tropical storm there is no need. And so the way that things are going it looks like its taking the predicted path. Now anything can happen as we all know with nature, it has its own way. We are fully prepared. The water taxis are prepared that if we need to, we could tomorrow morning start to evacuate people. And also if need be we can switch on the lights at International (Airport) and use the domestic aircrafts to transfer people to the International Airport. So that's not a problem, we can do that. But like I said its not indecision so much as the slowness of this storm that's not giving us the information that we require to make faster decisions."
But even as those decision have not been taken, the island residents seem at ease and with the exception of a few are mostly not boarding up their homes and businesses.
James Jan Mohammed,
"They have much more information that they have this day. They are getting information from the National Hurricane Center through the weather channel and they check it on the computer. Our critical period will be tomorrow. For boarding up they can do it as well tomorrow so some of them probably won't put it up until tomorrow."
For now however the island was flying a red one, preliminary phase flag, and the island seems by any estimate ready for the storm, even if islanders have not been ordered to evacuate just yet.
Again, if the storm continues in its current track, those tropical storm force winds are projected to descend on San Pedro between tomorrow morning and noon. Residents of the cayes and northern Belize in particular are urged to listen to their local radio stations for regular updates to advise them on what to do. Channel 7 will also be airing regular updates from The Weather Channel.
