The flooding of Belize’s rivers, damage to houses and power lines following a freak-weather event, and the spotting of a crocodile in a residential part of Belize City are just a few of the effects of Hurricane Julia on the country.

by Khaila Gentle

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Oct. 11, 2022

The passage of Hurricane Julia this past weekend has caused widespread flooding throughout parts of Central America, including in Belize, where the storm’s outer bands produced torrential rains that flooded western, central, and southern areas of the country.

On Tuesday, the National Meteorological Service, along with the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) and Ministry of Sustainable Development, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Management, held a press conference to address the flooding and the damage caused by Julia.

According to Chief Meteorologist Ronald Gordon, some parts of southern Belize, such as Placencia and Middlesex, received between six and eight inches of rainfall over the weekend. Then, on Monday, as the remnants of storm Julia moved west, areas in the Cayo district experienced “upwards of three inches of rainfall in a very short period of time.”

Apart from heavy rainfall, Julia also produced heavy winds of 15 – 25 knots and severe thunderstorms. In the Lake Independence area of Belize City, residents on McKay Boulevard made reports on Sunday of what they claimed to have been a tornado. Roofs were torn off and power lines were downed due to extremely heavy gusts of winds.

One eyewitness of the event, Marsha Valencio, reported that while she was in her living room, a sudden gust of wind ripped the roof of her home completely off, after which her furniture and other belongings became soaked with rainwater. Outside, her zinc fence was destroyed, and several neighboring houses had also suffered damage. According to Valencio, emergency personnel, as well as the police and Lake Independence area representative Hon. Cordel Hyde, were quick to respond.

Valencio, who is now trying to find the funds needed to rebuild her home and replace her belongings, said, “We are trying to get assistance from the Minister, Cordel Hyde, because he came the night to come check up on us. He came and asked us to go into shelter. He came personally and told us to get an invoice to see what he could help with, but if anybody else out there can assist, we can really appreciate it.”

Anyone wishing to assist Ms. Valencio can contact her at 636-2927.

According to the Chief Meteorologist, the freak event is known as a microburst and was the result of the severe thunderstorm occurring in that area.

“You have these sudden surges of wind coming down, hitting the surface of the ground and spreading out very rapidly, which resulted in of course some damage to some structures. I believe they were roof damage, for the most part, and downing of powerlines in that area as well,” he explained.

The National Coordinator of NEMO, Colonel Shelton Defour, says that it is still too early to assess the entirety of the damage caused by Julia, and officials are waiting for floodwaters to recede. Additionally, NEMO is bracing itself for the significant amount of flooding that is likely to affect the Belize River Valley area in the coming days as floodwaters move downriver from the west to the east.

“The water is cresting in the Belize River in the Cayo District—it’s moving downhill at a rapid pace, and so with the inundation, where the ground was already saturated in those areas due to pooling and accumulation of water, it means now that you have this second wave of floodwaters that will reach into places like Crooked Tree,” Defour said.

The Belize River Valley has already been grappling with flooding caused by rain, and the incoming floodwaters are expected to exacerbate things even further. NEMO has warned persons in that area to follow advisories and to move their belonging and their animals to a safer location. The effects of the flooding, said Col. Defour, may be seen as far down as Lord’s Bank and in parts of Ladyville.

“We implore the Belizean people, the public, to take the advisories [seriously]—don’t play in floodwaters. The Ministry of Health is concerned about dermatitis and about gastrointestinal illnesses which are on the increase due to contaminated waters,” he said.

Over the past two days, Belizeans have been documenting the large-scale flooding that has been occurring in various municipalities as well as the damage that has been caused across the country. In Belize City, residents reported seeing a small crocodile in Home Protector Park. It is believed that the animal was driven out of its natural habitat by floodwaters.

The flooding of the Sibun River has made parts of the Coastal Road impassable due to deep water. On Tuesday, one truck driver found himself stranded atop his vehicle after having driven off the submerged road. At some point, the truck keeled over in the waters swashing over the road, and he had to be rescued.

Meanwhile, residents of the village of Monkey River down south, who have been grappling with coastal erosion for years now, were forced to battle the unforgiving sea during the height of the passage of the storm, with at least one house having been lost to the rough water.

The losses experienced due to Julia, however, were not limited to homes and personal belongings. According to NEMO, the agriculture industry is expecting significant losses.

The Minister of Sustainable Development, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Management, Hon. Orlando Habet, explained during Tuesday’s press conference that a large amount of the production of agricultural food items in the Spanish Lookout area was affected, including soy beans, black beans, corn, and red beans.

“For some of these, the process for harvesting had already commenced, so when the rains came and the flooding increased, some of these

went underwater, some of them are still underwater. Maybe there will be a certain percentage that will still be able to be harvested, however, spoilage commences very quickly because they’re now soaked up with water—they’ll have to be put through a drying process, which is also expensive,” he said.

A full assessment of the losses sustained within the agriculture industry will commence after floodwaters in the Cayo district, and then in the Belize River Valley, have receded. Until then, the Ministry along with NEMO will be sending out a team to conduct preliminary assessments via helicopter.

Right after Julia dissipated, meteorologists began looking at the possibility of another tropical cyclone developing just north of the country, due to a trough of low pressure over the Bay of Campeche. The disturbance has since become the 11th named storm of the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season — Tropical Storm Karl, and the Mexican government reportedly issued a tropical storm watch for parts of the Mexican coast. Karl is not expected to affect Belize, and weather conditions should improve in the next few days.