7 News Belize

Floodwaters: Came in Buckets, Leaving In Teaspoons
posted (November 6, 2008)

As we reportedly earlier on, water levels across flooded areas in Belize have started to recede very slowly.


Today 7News spoke with Chief Hydrologist Rudolph Williams who told us that while some areas have been drying up, it will be some time before things will return to normal in other communities.

Rudolph Williams – Chief Hydrologist
“The water levels within the Belize River valley has been going down kind of rapidly in the upper parts of the valley however closer to Belize City it will take a while for the water to go down so it is going down pretty slowly but it is going down.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“So what does this mean for residents living in flooded areas like Belama phases 4 and 3?”

Rudolph Williams – Chief Hydrologist
“The water levels will show a marked decrease and then continue to go down very slowly. The people in these areas can expect that this water level will be sustained for another week, week and a half until they see some measurable fall in the water levels."

“And this is because our lagoons system such as the Crooked Tree Lagoon and the lagoons still have a large amount of water and will have to empty this water before we can go back to normalcy.”

“This is a major event in parts of the country extreme levels are compare to Hurricane Mitch and Hurricane Keith ad so it was major event although we did not have major hurricane to draw for it.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“Looking back at Tropical Depression 16, initially people thought the southern part of the country would have only been affected but it certainly spread throughout the entire country.”

Rudolph Williams – Chief Hydrologist
“And that was what we noticed. The Southern part of the country was affected first and they were affected a lot less than what we had expected them to be affected and as this system wobbled and weaved in front of us there. Actually the rainfall was over eastern Guatemala and northern Belize and southern Yucatan so we really got a good amount of rainfall in the upper parts of the watersheds and that’s what contributed to the event that is occurring right now.”


Meanwhile, work continues on the Northern Highway between Belize City and the Haulover bridge and that continues to improve the presently abominable driving conditions through this stretch of the highway. Still, motorists are being cautioned to be patient not overtake or drive at high speeds especially through areas that are still underwater.

In Burrell Boom village, a section of the main road remains impassable especially for small vehicles. In some sections it is reportedly under two feet of water. That water is not expected to go down until three days from now.

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