And from the tears of a grieving family to the frightened screams of a family in jeopardy. This morning, a strong gust of breeze spiralled through Billy White Village in the Cayo District, taking with it the roofs of four families.
The residents say it was like a tornado passed through their home, and while no one was hurt, they were all scared for their safety.
Courtney Menzies visited the village today and heard from one resident who thought her house was going to be lifted off its foundation. Here's that story.
Courtney Menzies:
The residents of Billy White Village were stricken with fear this morning when what they described as a tornado passed over their homes. Roofs were blown off, chicken coops tipped over, and plates - and even a dog - were flung into the air. But the villagers say they're just glad no one was injured.
Viviana Cano's house got it the worst - most of her family's roof is gone, flung into a nearby tree by the strong winds.
Even the chicken coops were either without a roof, or overturned, leaving the birds to roam freely.
Cano told us it had started to rain just before 9am so she sought refuge inside her house. That was when she was startled by a loud sound.
Viviana Cano, Resident
"My experience was that I was just taking out the clothes and was going inside when I heard the noise and I went to watch from the window and I saw like lot of branches and leaves going in the air and I got frightened, I went to find my mom and told her it was a tornado. We got frightened because I never had experienced a tornado here in Belize. I just saw when the house roof top fly away and I also saw when it landed way over there in the front of our house. We were more scared because my two sisters were not at home they were somewhere else at a next house and we thought something could happen to them. And here it just damage the roof top and some little other roofs from other house and it took some plates out from our house."
Cano said she feared for her life and that of her family, thinking she would end up like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz - whisked away by the tornado.
Viviana Cano, Resident
"I felt the house that it was going up because I think the air was going to lift it up and I felt when it was shaking and I felt all the thing shaking from inside."
Courtney Menzies:
"So during that thirty minutes, which is a long time, that you felt this tornado passing over what were you thinking, what was going through your head over this time."
Viviana Cano, Resident
"Well I was thinking about my sisters first of all and I just said a short pray to God to please don't let us happen something bad right now."
But while trees were uprooted and broken in half everyone - including this little dog caught up in the winds - was found safe.
It was the houses that took the hardest hit, one person's roof being flung about a quarter mile away.
Viviana Cano, Resident
"Back here got damage like three houses. My uncle, one over there my other uncle, our house and my grandma, four houses. My grandma got a little damage too."
Courtney Menzies:
"But for the most part it's just the roof?"
Viviana Cano, Resident
"Yes it's just the roof, I think the most damage house is my one because I think the tornado was more strong there."
But the family will need all the help they can get because while they're missing some plates, and a teddy bear, Cano said that hardest part will be repairing their house.
Viviana Cano, Resident
"To repair our roof I think we will need help to repair it because we just have our grandfather that passed away and we use all our money to do thing there."
Courtney Menzies:
"So if it rains will you get wet?"
Viviana Cano, Resident
"Yes we will get wet because the ceiling, it could melt with the rain so yes we could get wet."
And while they work on that, they'll also need to fish pieces of zincs from out of the trees, and make sure all unsupervised chickens are accounted for.
Officials from NEMO and BEL were on the scene early, assessing the damage.
The forecaster at MET today, Crystal Rosalez, informed us that it was an isolated rain event that consisted mostly of strong breeze and thunderstorms. She said the entire event was short lived and not exactly unusual.
