7 News Belize

Living In The Memory of Hurricane Earl
posted (August 3, 2017)
Exactly one year ago around this time, Belizeans were just waiting in their homes and shelters for Hurricane Earl to make landfall. Although everyone braced for impact, Earl - the strongest category one storm any Belizean has ever felt - had no mercy and ripped through the Belize district- and then went on to Cayo and Stann Creek where he damaged crops.

Belize City and Ladyville residents were the hardest hit with major damage to homes caused by storm surge which ranged from three to six feet, and winds estimated to be as high as 90 miles per hour.

Today Courtney Weatherburne re-visited a few of residents to see if they have reclaimed their lives after Earl.

Audrey Myvett, Ladyville Resident
"I was inside my house me and my kids and I was sitting on my bed and all of a sudden I just feel the whole house drop."

"My neighbor over there call me and she said Audrey come over so I told her alright so we came back got jacket and thing to put on."

Courtney Weatherburne
"This was during the storm while it was raining hard?"

Audrey Myvett, Ladyville Resident
"And breeze was blowing and we left and when we open the gate the breeze brought us all back because it was blowing so hard, brought us all back so I told them let us stand behind the house for a while I say let the breeze cool off a bit and after that we went over and we stayed there the whole night sitting up."

Courtney Weatherburne reporting
That's an experience that Myvett remembers with dread - and one she has been trying to recover from since Hurricane Earl hit in August of last year. It wrecked her home and all her belongings.

Fortunately for Myvett she got a new house with the help of the village chairlady, but she still has a lot left to do to fix it all up.

Courtney Weatherburne
"What is some of the work you have done in the home already?"

Audrey Myvett, Ladyville Resident
"Well I bought beaver board to do part offing (partitioning), the part off isn't finished as yet but one part is finished , do a couple bit of paining, outside, inside because those board done last very long so you have to move fast with them."

Courtney Weatherburne
"You were mentioning to fix up your bathroom as well?"

Audrey Myvett, Ladyville Resident
"Every week I take a little money to the hardware store to get my cement, my cement blocks and what not you know."

Here is where the bathroom will go but until it is completed. Myvett and her grandkids use this outdoor bathroom.

Courtney Weatherburne
"When do you think you are going to have this home, your home back to how it was before?"

Audrey Myvett, Ladyville Resident
"Well I pray I have back before Christmas."

But this family isn't sure when they will get their home completely repaired. While they can enjoy the comforts of cooking in the kitchen.

It's not the same in their bedroom where they can't get much of a good night's sleep with their damaged roof.

This was how it looked a year ago - and even with some basic patching up, it still it leaks.

Harrison Brackett, Ladyville Resident
"Well the process is really slow I didn't get any help at all from nobody and my house is still not back in the condition that it was before. I am surviving I don't even have a job right now, I am on retirement."

Courtney Weatherburne
"Update us on the situation with your room?"

Harrison Brackett, Ladyville Resident
"Well, after the weather I managed to buy some zinc that was probably blown off of somebody else house but then I had to take those off back then I then I had gotten some from where I was working, the boss had gave me some that was blown off a building over that way but I put them on but they are still not 100% I have so many guys go up there and put "Never Leak" and it still has some slow little drips you know."

And Japan area Resident Mirna Bol had way more to worry about than a leaking roof. The entire top portion of her home was raked off.

But today it's a comfy, well designed home. Bol says she just bought a TV last month and still has to find the money to buy a refrigerator.

So after 1 year, all these residents are still trying to leave the wreckage and trauma behind. It is an ongoing struggle, one they all say they will survive.

And one thing, at least for today, that brought comfort and peace was the clear and sunny sky -which these kids celebrated with freshly plucked coconuts.

And while everyone who felt Earl was happy for today's clear skies, there are storm clouds brewing off Africa tonight. The National Hurricane Center reports a vigorous tropical wave coming off the Cape Verde Islands - with a 60% chance of development in the next five days.

There's also a strong tropical wave located over the eastern Caribbean Sea above the tip of South American that only has a 40% chance of development, but does include Belize in the protection cone. There'll be more about these later in the weather report.

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