Three inches of rain has fallen on the Belize district during the past 24 hours. We can't give you the exact rainfall for Belize City because the Met Department doesn't track that. But that cold figure hardly tells the story of a city that was deluged this morning. We were out from before 7:00 to see what effect the rain had.
Keith Swift Reporting, [keithkswift@gmail.com]
Residents across Belize City woke up this morning to this: water. There was water on Dean Street, more water on Freetown Road, and even more water on Princess
Margaret Drive. Streets were flooded, traffic slowed to a crawl in some areas, and students returned home soaked. We met this father and his daughter: no work for him and no school for her.
Father #1,
"My little girl right here can't go to school none at all due to all the water pouring at this place."
But that was nothing compared to Jane Usher Boulevard. It may look this dog is wading through a lake but this is actually the street and there is this young girl had to wear a rubber boots to play with her dog in her backyard. And then
there are these children marooned in this trailer home. Their mom Bernadine Gonguez says she is searching for higher ground.
Bernadine Gonguez, Jane Usher Boulevard
"When it rains, you see all the filth where people have their sewerage thing at the back there come into the yard and also the alligators, some big ones, come out. I can't go into my house. I am afraid for even my hard and that is why I am trying to keep the children inside. From they blocked off over there, everything comes and float into our yards so everyone is looking for higher ground."
And while she searches, down the street Albert Ramos already has a game plan. He is getting out of the city, or at least out of Jane Usher Boulevard.
Albert Ramos, Jane Usher Blvd. Resident
"I am looking to get out of the city because the water situation really cruel. When I woke this morning the house, the flooring, under water and everything the float. The only thing I could decide to do is run back to my home, back to south, and this kind of water, even my neighbors around say they have never see so much water yet. Saturday, which was just before the weather, my two dogs were taken by the alligator and so all my neighbors are scared right now. This water really is up to the level of my house so I decide to roll out."
And while the flooding here on Jane Usher Boulevard can be blamed on a lack of proper drainage, the same can't be said for other parts of the city. Case in point is Rivero Street which is a heartbeat from downtown Belize City. Today it looked more like a lake. To talk to Leonie Hemsley we had to shout. We didn't have much luck and so the 75-year-old grandmother decided to trudge barefoot through water to talk to us.
Leonie Hemsley, Rivero Street Resident
"I live around here from 1968 and anytime the street, like how its built,
you can see that this is a little bowl, and anytime it rains whole night and whole day, it floods. That something we are used to but now it is getting worse. They built up that street, they built up the other street, and they built up that side but they didn't build here at all. So all the water comes in here like a basin. They built up all those streets because this street didn't use to stay like this."
So progress brought lots of problems to Rivero Street and in that basin we found children wildly frolicking as they enjoyed their day off from school. But for the adults this was serious business. These houses are submerged and Leonie says that her daughter's house is ruined.
Leonie Hemsley,
"I live upstairs but my daughter and my granddaughter live there and downstairs is wet up. It is filled with water, the water went high. This morning when I went downstairs, the bathroom, because it is high had no water, but the whole balance of the house is filled with water."
These residents say they know they cannot prevent the rain, that's caused by nature and they can only hope that it does stop raining. But they say what could and should have been prevented is the flooding. They blame that on neglect.
Wayne Cadle,
"The rain has to come down, that is the Good Lord's work, all of us are living by that, so we need to get together and fix these things."
Leonie Hemsley,
"They are not doing their jobs the right way because they don't clean the drain."
Father #1,
"If the Minister who is working right now, if they were spending the money the right way and fixing the streets the right way we wouldn't have all these drainage problems you are seeing right now."
Keith Swift,
But they didn't cause the rain.
Father #1,
"This is nature but if they were making righteous drainage for the streets, all the water wouldn't clog up like you see on West Street, Basra Street, and South Street."
And if these ominous clouds are a sign of anything, there'll be a lot more rain and blame to throw around.
