7 News Belize

Great 08: Arthur's Wrath


posted (December 31, 2008)

It used to be that when it came to weather, the only thing we really had to worry about was a direct hit form a hurricane.  But 2008 changed that; it showed how ferocious flash floods – which are new to Belize – could change everything in a just a few hours.  Whether you attribute it to climate change or to land use practices, floods became the most be-devilling public issue of 2008.  It started dramatically on the second day of the Hurricane Season, June second with Tropical Storm Arthur when an early morning flash flood swept through the villages in south Stann Creek district, killing 5 people and overturning hundreds of lives. This was what Keith Swift found when he went South:

[Airdate: June 2nd 2008] 

Keith Swift Reporting,
The flood waters washed away a culvert on the Hummingbird Highway but in the Valley Community at mile 21, it was much more destructive. I am standing where the Ritchie's house used to stand. That was until 2 this morning when the flood waters washed it away. And along with the house, it took the Ritchie family.

Bedford Ritchie, Family Member of the Deceased
"That flood just came right now, sudden one and when I look I saw my nephew's house over there and I told him to get out. It looks like he was trying to pack up his things and the water didn't give him any break. The water just come right up and picked up their house and took it down there and mashed it up.

After that I took my family from here and I took them in the ceiling in the house there. I got some plywood and we went way inside the ceiling. Then I flashed the flashlight and I looked and I saw the house caught up there and a light way up in an orange tree. I gave him the signal to stay there until the water goes down and then we will assist him.

When we got there we found his daughter to the back of the house dead and at another spot we found his wife trapped underneath the house top. She died too and the little son, we can't find the body."

Consuelo Ritchie, Family Member of Deceased
"It is so hard, we are taking it hard because we don't know where the little boy is. We don't know if we will find him."

And then there was even more tragedy here in Hope Creek where we joined a father on a desperate search for his missing and now presumed dead son.

Philberto Roches, Father of Deceased
"The water was about two feet inside the house and by the time I turned around, got clothes for my boy and come out back, the water was across to neighbour already. So I came outside and tried to swim towards the mango tree and the current pushed me behind Miss Dorothy house and I ended up behind a mango tree.

And when the current came I went underneath the water and I bit my little boy in his hand, just to hold him, and by the time I came up back – he was gone. So I turned around and tried to find him and never did find him again. So right now I am just trying to find him. He is somewhere around this area, somewhere around and I will search until I find him."

And while Philberto Roches is confident that he will be able to find his missing son, there is little or no hope in the rest of the village. That is because right now we are walking through knee deep water and residents say that this morning the water was at their waist and the only thing most could save were their lives.

Olga Bol, Flood Victim – Hope Creek
"We lost everything. The house is totally destroyed and I think we need their help at this present moment. I lost everything; documents, diploma, my IDs, and everything. So I think we really really need them to come out and help us."

Keith Swift,
When did you have to flee your house?

Olga Bol,
"It was like 2:30 this morning when we heard the little chicken making noise and then the gentleman that I live with, he woke up and he stepped right into the water and it was already above our knee and then by the time he locked the door and opened it again, the water was coming through. We had to swim towards the tree and then got all scratched up, ants bite and everything."

Keith Swift,
What are you going to do?

Olga Bol,
"I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea what I'll do."

Carmelita Castellanos, Flood Victim – Hope Creek
"We don't have a step, we don't have our mattress, we don't have sheets. We need food, we need a lot of things. I have two daughter and we need a lot of help right now. So that is what we need right now, a lot of help. We don't want them to only come and look at us, we need help because when the water was rising we called the officers because only that I could have called. I called two times and the officers said that he cannot help us. That is the answer I got."

Mario Villafranco, Flood Victim – Hope Creek
"It is so frightening because all of a sudden you step out and you see water is already at your navel. So I came out and I saw everybody going. I just got frightened. I have six kids and I fought for them and we survived. The house was over that corner and now it is in my neighbor's lot. It seems like I pushed my neighbour more to the back."

Keith Swift,
Were you able to save anything?

Mario Villafranco,
"No, nothing – just my kids and me."

And one life that couldn't be saved was that of 36 year old Alwin McNab in Sittee River.

Wellington McKenzie, Friend of Deceased
"Well what happened is that me and this guy went to get a dory to go and save some other guys by my neighbourhood. Before we got there we couldn't reach and so we decided to turn back. While turning back he couldn't stand up no more and he went underneath my house and there he drowned. They found him about two or three hours after."

To give you an idea of what exactly is happening here in Sittee River, behind me is the Sittee River which looks like the ‘Sittee Sea' with violent currents – something villagers say they have never seen before.

Hilton Lamb, Flood Victim – Sittee River
"As you can see, pure mud I am dealing with. For three hours I have been right on the vernadah. I can't finish at all, it is pure mud and inside is worse. It is all on the bed, all on the chairs, the clothes – everything is wet up, muddy up and things like that."

Keith Swift,
Did it creep up on you or was it gradually rising?

Hilton Lamb,
"It came fast from six this morning. All my banana, plantains – it threw down the plantains and washed them away and all those things."

Keith Swift,
Sir has this happened here before?

Hilton Lamb,
"No, no – never before. I was born right out here and the flood has never come on this land until now."

And while Hilton Lamb has a muddy house to clean, he is one of the lucky ones in Sittee River. The flood has left many homeless.

Florence Gabourel, Flood Victim – Sittee River
"I lost everything, everything everything in my house. We don't have food. This morning the helicopter came and said they would bring food and so and from the time it left, it hasn't come back. We have no clothes, we are all wet up. I lived way to the back and it is the first time in my whole life I see something like this."

Sittee Village Resident,
"We are without food and water from since this morning. One helicopter came and we really don't know if it was NEMO or who but a helicopter came and landed and told us that they are going to Belmopan and get fuel and get us some water and food and come back. But since then nobody has showed up. We haven't heard anything from anybody and the situation is still the same. The water went down but everybody is dry and hungry. So I don't know what is the situation with NEMO and all those people that do those planning and everything. It seems like they didn't plan for Sittee River.

One thing I want to say is that if they have plans to help people I think they should have been here already with at least water and food for the kids. NEMO is just dreams and dreams and dreams – that's all I could say. They are a bag of dreams. PUP or UDP – nothing change."

The Ritchie Tragedy

[Airdate: June 3rd, 2008]

Indeed it was a flood, the likes of which had not been seen in the south for decades.  Lives were overturned and infrastructure was wrecked; all told the damages added up to 70 million dollars.  But there is no quantifying the loss felt by Mark Ritchie Sr.  In a few minutes, he lost his whole family and a remarkably stoic Ritchie told us what happened:
 

Mark Ritchie Sr., Lost Family in Flood
"The river came up very fast. It is a sudden thing, a fast thing and the house started to shake with a lot of breeze and like in seconds the house just popped. And when it popped, the roof just came in on me and my family. And I didn't feel the house like it was travelling or nothing like that but when I came out of the house, I found out I was somewhere else and the house was far from the area where it was before. I ended up in an orange tree in darkness. That is all I have to say."

Keith Swift,
Where was your wife and kids?

Mark Ritchie Sr.,
"My wife and my fourteen year old daughter Eleanor were inside the house trapped. The roof came down on them. My son, one mile from here we found him."

Trails of Destruction and Tales of Despair

And while Mark Ritchie maintained his composure, so did most of the people we encountered in south.  Their losses were tremendous, the chaos unravalled all around them, but most folks just went ahead and started putting back what pieces they could:

[June 3rd 2008]

Keith Swift Reporting,
The flood waters have receded rather rapidly here in Hope Creek. The street we are standing on and which we are able to walk through freely was under knee deep high water yesterday. But that is hardly any consolation to the families here in the Old Melinda Forest Station area of Hope Creek. They've lost just about everything.

No consolation to Olga Bol. One of the few things she's been able to salvage is these mangoes from her refrigerator which – like just about every other thing in her house –is lying in thick mud and is now useless.

Olga Bol, Flood Victim – Hope Creek
"I didn't save anything. Everything; bedroom, the clothes, and whatsoever went down. Nothing is good in this house."

Keith Swift,
Olga what do you need right now?

Olga Bol,
"My most need is like clothing, food, water –that is what we need. With the house, I don't know what we will do. I don't know."

Keith Swift,
How do you move on?

Olga Bol,
"That I don't know because like I said, we will from scratch. I have a job, I don't know if when I go back I will have one. I don't know because definitely I won't go back to work like this. I have no clothes to go to work, I have no shoes – nothing. So I don't know what we will do."

Thaddeus Pook and his common-law wife Rosaline Young also don't know what they will do. Their home like many others now resembles a pig sty.

Thaddeus Pook, Flood Victim – Hope Creek
"I had a little young baby, about one month old, and another son who is just six. They can't help themselves. We started struggling in here and didn't have time to save anything because of the fastness of the water. I took a stool from the table, put it on top of the dresser, and I started to push up my wife and after that I pushed up the baby. I ripped off the table cloth off the table and threw it on top of the zinc and hauled up the baby slowly. I then hauled up my little son.

I couldn't say that we could have saved anything because of the fastness with which the current went up. But I am glad my family is safe, that is what I was worrying about. I wasn't worried about the material things, I was worried that my family was alright.

At the moment our minds are still confused and we are stressed out right now and we don't really have a plan what we will do yet."

And the news isn't any better in Sittee River where flood waters ripped through this store, this restaurant, and many homes – including that of Sherett Espinoza. Lost in the mud were money, which along with the house, they had to be hose down.

Sherett Espinoza, Flood Victim – Sittee River
"Everything you see right here is what was in my mom's house and she lost everything. What we found was the money which they are washing. We are washing out the house right now to try and make it look like a house back."

Keith Swift,
You've taken out all the stuff so what are you guys going to do now?

Sherett Espinoza,
"Well we have to start all over."

That's also what Angela Reynolds will have to do.

Angela Reynolds, Flood Victim – Sittee River
"I have to say I am out of door because everything I had is lost right now and I am trying to clean out my house so I could put back at least the chairs, the ones that are board, and the table. But the mattress and everything I lost; almost everything. Thank God only my self is left and my children."

Keith Swift,
Again like so many other people, did the water just come suddenly?

Angela Reynolds,
"Yes, suddenly the water came. It came suddenly at 6 o'clock yesterday morning and we couldn't get to save anything. We couldn't save nothing other than our lives."

Keith Swift,
What will be your next move?

Angela Reynolds,
"Well I will just clean out the house and prepare for another weather because it just begin."

And along with the destruction and despair here in Sittee River there is some progress, some good news to report. That is that the residents who were yesterday searching for ‘Mr. Nemo' have found him. And this afternoon Mr. Nemo was this BATSUB helicopter which arrived with food for distribution to 85 families in Sittee Rive, including the man who yesterday called out for NEMO.

Dale Raynod, Flood Victim – Sittee River
"Basically from since the disaster happened in the morning and until midday coming on to evening we didn't get any help but then after the Prime Minister visited and promised us we would get relief, sudden one about nine o'clock in the night the soldiers they came. So basically I wanted to apologize to NEMO for yesterday but due to the frustration I believed that they really weren't going to help us. But I just want to say thanks to everybody out there and to the whole country of Belize, than whenever you hear about flash floods – prepare yourself because we didn't take it seriously and the rush that came across – leaving us without water to drink and food to eat – everything in your house get ruined, nowhere to sleep – it was real frustrating for us."

Florence Gabourel, Flood Victim – Sittee River
"We have to say thanks to the government because they gave us some food and some clothes. So thanks to the government, Mr. Barrow came yesterday and he promised that he would give us some food. I am okay now, so thanks to the government."

But not everyone is pleased with Mr. Nemo

Bedsford Ritchie, Flood Victim – Valley Community
"They bring about 18 gallons of water and corn beef and sausage and that is all we have to eat. There is no bread at the shops to buy, there is so bread. We haven't gotten nothing to eat, only sausage."

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