Like we said, the floods are truly historic: both for their awesome
force and for the death toll they exacted. At a press conference today in Belmopan,
Prime Minister Dean Barrow said it was a terrible loss but they are determined
to make sure it won’t surprise them again.
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
“This is a national emergency, this is a national disaster. We first
of all express condolences to those families that have lost loved ones, to those
that have seen lives lost. That is the most naturally unfortunate aspect of
this tragedy that has unfolded and that is unfolding.
Col. Lovell has said that there are two confirmed lives lost and there
are 5 other persons reported missing but there is no confirmation that those
people are dead. In terms of people that were stranded on rooftops and that
sort of thing, that situation is under control. The water in those areas have
receded to the point where those people are not in any danger.
We do have a fear that because the Met Office now tells us that the rains
are likely to continue for another day or two, that there could be a resurgence
of the flood waters to the levels that we saw last night and early this morning.
There are people who as the waters have been receding, have been telling us
that they simply are not going to leave their homes and their villages. Boats
are actually stationed in Gales Point, in Mullins River, and in Sittee so that
we have the situation being constantly monitored and if it appears that there
is going to be a resurgence, we will press these people again to evacuate and
we will have the means for their evacuation.”
Hon. Melvin Hulse, Minister of NEMO
“Let me just say that we have been accustomed to flooding but nobody
expected a flood of this magnitude and certainly we had no warning because these
floods are beyond anything we have experienced in the last thirty to forty years.
So that is one of the quirks of nature and because of that, as you can see from
the picture the Prime Minister showed you and the fact that a bridge like Kendall,
as high as it is, and has withstood tremendous floods from the 1989 and 1988,
has gone completely in its totality.
So the extreme swiftness and the power of a flood that came down. But we’ve
moved on from that. The fact is that the flood came and people lives were affected.
The fact is that the rivers have receded but they have not gone down to their
original stages. Another night or day of rain can very easily bring the water
back up and then that will not recede as quickly. But because we are physically
in place, what we experienced today will not be repeated.
We have food and clothing in place.”
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