Nearly record rainfall has been recorded in many areas across Belize in the last 30 days. In fact the Met Department says that since July 1st the Orange Walk, Belize, Cayo, and parts of the Stann Creek District have received almost double the normal rainfall for this month. And that's with 9 full days to go before the end of the month. All that rain has been adding up and today the National Emergency Management Organization issued a flood advisory for residents along rivers in the four affected districts. Many bridges and roads are reportedly already submerged and the news won't get any better according to Deputy Chief Meteorologist Ramon Frutos.
Ramon Frutos, Deputy Chief Meteorologist
"July rainfall, according to the records, have been well above normal, especially for central and northwestern areas of the country of Belize. For example up at Rio Bravo in the La Milpa Area, that is the northwestern part of the Orange Walk District, rainfall for July up to date has been 70% above normal. At the airport and Central Farm it has been approximately 43% above normal. So indeed in the central and northwestern part of the country rainfall has been above normal for July.
We still expect showers to continue to develop. We could expect a couple more tropical waves before the month is up and hence we expect more rainfall around the country.
Today we got quite a lot of reports coming from around the country, especially the Orange Walk District, the Belize, Stann Creek, Cayo, and Toledo Districts with the exception of the Corozal District where people on the low lying areas have been experiencing rising water and floods.
We call them localized flood. For example we heard on the news this morning that the Crooked Tree area was flooded. The causeway was under water yesterday, about 1.5 feet of water, and today it went even higher. And so traffic on that causeway had to be stopped because the water was running across the causeway quite strongly.
Other areas of the country that have been experiencing flooding include the Belmopan area, around Mount Pleasant Creek. Other areas in southern Belize, the Toledo District, the Golden Stream, the Deep Rivers, have been flooding. And in the north we have been getting reports from the New River, that the New River has been rising.
In the Chalillo and the Mollejon area of the upper Macal watershed, water levels were rising. The Chalillo continues to spill over and at the Mollejon the water level is also rising. The last report that we got the bridge, the wooden bridge at San Ignacio, is still slightly above water but there is a threat it could possibly be under water during the late evening if the runoff continues, and that will occur."
Rainfall totals for the Corozal and Toledo Districts have been normal.
