Source http://belizean.com/news/belize-rebuilds-after-hurricane-richard/
Life is slowly returning to normal in Belize after Category One Hurricane Richard slammed into the
lightly populated central region of the country Sunday night October 24 leaving
behind damage to infrastructure and agriculture, a total collapse of the
electrical grid but no loss of life.
The eye of Hurricane Richard made landfall
approximately 10 miles south of the capital Belmopan, population 20,000 Sunday
evening. It ripped off the roofs of dozens of homes on the coast, from Belize
City to the north, down to Dangriga in the
south, and destroyed hundreds of plywood and tin roof shacks used by the poor –
mostly in Belize City and nearby villages. Some 4,000 people huddled in
hurricane shelters during the storm that brought 92 mile per hour winds and
torrential rains, and today Tuesday a couple thousand remain there as their
homes are gone or uninhabitable. Most Belizeans
weathered the storm in darkness as the country’s entire electrical grid
collapsed. Belize purchases electrical power from Mexico and generates its own
from two hydro plants but the damage to transmission lines was substantial. The
seat of government, Belmopan, built 50 miles inland 29 years ago following a
devastating hurricane that partly destroyed coastal Belize City, was also
plunged into darkness. The Belize government had decided a couple of years ago
to decommission the capital’s diesel generating backup station and rely solely
on the national grid.
Crane retrieving hurricane
Richard downed billboard at Habet owned hardwware store in Belmopan
Belize.
The Belize government has announced an estimated
damage of U.S. $18. million from hurricane Richard – not counting the disruption
to business and the productive sector due to the collapse of the electrical
grid, which also led to no water being available as the government owned water
company does not have backup generators to power its pumping stations. Prime
Minister Barrow vowed to make all efforts to find the money to rebuild the
damage done by the hurricane.
By Tuesday morning approximately 70 percent of
the country had electricity restored and the privately owned Belize Electricity
Limited was projecting to have the entire grid restored by nightfall. All
schools in the Belize, Cayo and Stann Creek districts are closed and will reopen
on Wednesday. Many schools serve a dual role as hurricane shelters. Internet
service and cable television are still disrupted due to downed lines and utility
poles. The country’s international airport near Belize City is
now reopened and flight schedules are normal. Additional flights are being put
in to retrieve passengers who ended up in other countries, for example El
Salvador, when flights had to be diverted on Monday in the aftermath of the
hurricane.
At a press conference organised by Prime
Minister Dean Barrow in Belmopan yesterday evening it was revealed that about
30% of Belize’s orange crop has been lost. One reporter described walking a
citrus orchard in the Stann Creek Valley: “The entire orchard was covered with
an emerald carpet of thousands upon thousands of young and immature orange fruit
ripped from the trees by the hurricane winds.”
The largest citrus processing company in Belize
is starting processing operations ahead of schedule today to do sampling tests
and attempt to recover some of the crop on the ground.
Despite the misery endured by Belizeans during
the hurricane, the event was not without its lighthearted and interesting
moments.
Some motorists and tourists on the Northern
Highway near Belize City (and thousands watching on television) were startled to
see crocodiles and boa constrictors crossing the highway as it began to
flood.
In San Victor, a village in the Orange Walk
district, a shelter warden opened his shelter early. But then got drunk and
accidentally
locked himself inside the shelter. Being unable to find the keys
in the darkness, he rode out the storm by himself while villagers
had to flee
to another shelter.
And in Belmopan, the government’s post storm
press conference at the the National Emergency Management Organization was cut
short when the building’s backup generator failed during a long-winded
intervention by a local politician.
