Both central and northern Belize experienced heavy rains for four days, resulting in flash flooding across a number of villages in the Corozal and Orange walk districts. The National Emergency Management Organization held a press brief today along with the chief Met Officer and gave us a breakdown on the seriousness of the flooding. Jomarie Lanza has that report for us.
What began as just a few hours of rain on Friday morning quickly escalated, flooding roads in the north, displacing residents, and forcing some into shelters by evening.
Videos and pictures of vehicles under water, and floodwaters coursing through villages in the north prompted the National Emergency Service to respond. Chief Met officer Ronald Gordon reported up to 12 inches of rainfall between Wednesday and Saturday with some areas like Douglas for example seeing up to 13 inches of rain. He says that was all it took to cause these floods.
Ronald Gordon, Chief Met Officer
"Based on the analysis we have seen most of that rainfall occurred on Friday last week and again on Saturday morning early. So in a very short time period we had significant rainfall in those areas and that is what contributed to the flooding that you saw in those locations."
As floodwaters swept through the villages, some residents were forced into shelters. NEMO Coordinator Daniel Mendez shared details on the emergency response.
Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator
"We saw that there were a total of, several villages that were affected as a result of of flooding, and we put out a statement this morning basically to state that overall 54 persons from the villages of Trial Farm and San Pablo were housed in emergency shelters and these were open as of Friday night. As of this morning most of those seeking shelter have returned home as conditions have improved and most roads are now passable. However there are still 26 people at the San Pablo community centre who continue to receive support from NEMO. Today we are doing damage assessments, damage assessment teams are out conducting assessments on areas that have been impacted and determining what exactly happened. The relief and supplies management committee has also been on the ground, who are doing follow up visits with those affected families and ensuring that they continue to receive food, water, I think supplies and bedding. This support will continue as long as it's necessary in order for us to alleviate the impact these persons had."
Flood waters have begun to recede with the exception of just a few villages where not all vehicles can safely traverse through these waters.
Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator
"We had been monitoring this situation with the National Met Service and the National Hydrological Service over the past few days. And we will continue to do so throughout the rest of the season. Of course again we put out that particularly in the Orange walk district, we know now that the road leading to Yo Creek is passable, the roads leading to Santa Martha are passable and we are asking drivers to exercise extreme caution in the Guinea Grass village area the water is now passable. In San Roman it is passable for high trucks and vehicles only. Again we encourage drivers to exercise extreme caution while trying to traverse this area. In the village of San Antonio and August Pine Ridge water has receded and those roads are now passable."
A release says, quote, "NEMO will be reviewing and analyzing the factors that contributed to the flooding in the affected communities....as the country continues to experience increasingly intense rainfall events."
