Tonight Northern Belize and the Cayes are under a tropical storm watch as category 5 Hurricane Wilma tracks into the Gulf of Mexico.
Wilma is packing winds as high as 160 miles per hour and its central pressure is now 892, an indication of weakening. Weakening, because last night she was recorded as the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Atlantic basin with a reading of 882 millibars, below the record of 888 millibars in 1988's Hurricane Gilbert. In just 90 minutes between 11:00 pm and 12:30 am, she went from a category four storm to a category 5. But that muscular showing appears to be behind her now, even though she remains a very dangerous storm.
At 6 pm local time, the hurricane was 284 miles north east of Belize City, 267 miles east of San Pedro, and 244 miles east north east of Half Moon Caye. The storm is barely moving but the good news is that it is moving west north west, away from Belize at a pace of only 7 miles an hour. In an interview conducted at 4 pm at the Weather Bureau, Chief Meteorologist Carlos Fuller told us that the storm has passed Belize City, but the northern part of the country and the cayes can expect tropical storm force winds as early as tomorrow morning.
Carlos Fuller, Chief Meteorologist
"The northern part of the country could experience tropical storm force winds, that is winds between 40, 50, 60 miles per hour. I am fairly confident
though that Belize City is now escaping it because it is now north of Belize City. Belize City is at 17.5 and the hurricane is now at 17.7. So on a westward track, Belize is pretty much out of the danger but Caye Caulker, San Pedro, and the Corozal District could get those tropical storm force winds."
Keith Swift,
What kind of effects will we experience and when?
Carlos Fuller,
"If it takes a more westward track, tropical storm force winds will begin to start to affect them sometime like tomorrow morning around mid-morning, that is when they would get it. I believe at the most they will get winds at 50 miles per hour, unless of course it makes a due west then it is a major hurricane hitting them. But that doesn't seem to be likely."
Keith Swift
So have we in the city escaped Wilma?
Carlos Fuller,
"At this stage yes."
Keith Swift,
Should we look out for thunderstorms and flooding?
Carlos Fuller,
"Our concern will be from two angles. First of all Wilma is generating very large waves. Those are now moving towards the coast and in fact San Pedro is already getting some waves of 9 to 12 feet. Belize City will get much smaller waves but still something significant. And in addition we'll be getting feeder bands, these intense thunderstorms that could dump five to ten inches of rainfall on the northern portions of our mountains. So we could see flooding in the Stann Creek Valley, in the north Stann Creek River, in the Belize River, and Sibun and so on. Those will be the areas that I believe will get the heavy rainfall."
Keith Swift,
Have you ever seen a storm like this with its erratic movement and rapid change in strength?
Carlos Fuller,
"Well the strengthening really was unprecedented. This set a new record, it doubled how deep a hurricane would fall in twelve hours, so that is totally unpredictable. The models were behaving fairly good up until today when the longer range models are now showing differences. It is not the 24 to 36 hour time range where they are differing from, it is at the five day mark that it is now showing some difference."
Keith Swift,
The advice to Belizeans at home?
Carlos Fuller,
"All the residents of Belize need to continue to monitor the hurricane very carefully on radio and on television."
Later on in the newscast we'll take you out to San Pedro where preparations for Wilma were underway. Again Belize City is now south of the storm and at 6 pm it was 284 miles away. NEMO has only issued a tropical storm watch. There are no evacuations ordered in the city but this afternoon that was enough to prompt boat owners to move their vessels to higher ground. This afternoon the Port Authority and City Council opened the Swing Bridge, Bel-China, and Belcan Bridges and ordered boats be moved further inland. The bridges will swing again tomorrow morning at 6 am.
