TS Sara Related Floods Take Over Crooked Tree Road

A week has passed, but the country is still reeling from the impact of Tropical Storm Lisa. The storm swept rapidly across Belize, but even before it made landfall, it unleashed heavy rains that caused rivers to overflow. Neighboring Honduras bore the brunt of the storm, recording forty inches of rain in just three days, while Guatemala also faced significant downpours. News Five has been tracking the floodwaters, starting in western Belize on Monday and now in Crooked Tree by week’s end. Yesterday, the road into the village became impassable, and today, the only way in or out is by boat. At least twelve families have had to evacuate as floodwaters continue to rise around the village. News Five’s Paul Lopez traveled there today and filed this report.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

I am currently standing at the entrance to Crooked Tree Village waiting for a boat to take us in. We got here and initially attempted to enter the village by way of a pickup truck. However, the road is impassable at this point in time by any sort of vehicle. This is the second day the roadway has been inundated by flood waters and this is the reality that residents now have to face to get to and from the community. Earlier today, a Belize Defense Force truck managed to navigate the flooded road into the village. However, when another truck arrived later with groceries for the residents, it didn’t dare attempt the same route. Sheril Adolphus took a boat from the village at dawn to run her breakfast restaurant in Sand Hill. We caught up with her as she waited for the midday boat to take her back home.

 

Sheril Adolphus, Resident, Crooked Tree

“Ih just punishing that you have to catch the boat off and on and then you have a lot of load. So, it is very stressful, it is very tiring, very uncomfortable. I mih the do a business in Sand Hill, do breakfast in the morning. But, I cannot cross the water everyday four o’clock to go and work.”

 

The grocery supplies that arrived today are very much needed, because the flooded roadway has prevented grocery store suppliers from entering the community.

 

Kenisha Garbutt, Vice-Chair, RSMC NEMO

“Today we are out here to stock the shelter and give a predisposition into the community. We are heading into Rancho and Lemonal when we are done from here and then we are doing a quick stop in Boom just to ensure the shelters are stocked in the event  that it needs to be opened.”

 

Paul Lopez

“Currently this is the only way in and out of Crooked Tree Village. Quite honestly it is a bit stressful in and out these boats. Earlier one Coast Guard boat came in to pick up passengers from a bus. But, the amount of residents that came on that boat required the Coast Guard to call for additional boats. Then, you have the supplies that must go in as well. So, this is what Crooked Tree residents are dealing with and perhaps for days if not weeks to come.”

 

A makeshift peer has been constructed at the village’s entrance for boats to dock. There, we met with the village Chairman, George Tillett. He shared with us how the floodwaters have affected his community.

 

George Tillett, Chairman, Crooked Tree

“We have been affected very rashly, because it has affected normal life, especially for the commuters, for students. We have something like eighty students who commute daily for high school and sixth form. Last night, the last boat came in somewhere like ten o’clock. Some of the students and workers got frustrated and they end up walking that one mile of water across the lagoon. I think I counted some twenty-three people that walked across the water last night, because they were there from around five o’clock in the evening. There was only one boat that can only take twenty people. And imagine there is a hundred and eighty people out there waiting with one boat that can only take twenty people with an interval of thirty minutes per trip.”

 

It’s not just commuters who are facing challenges. Fisherfolk can’t head out to work because of the floodwaters, leaving their boats docked. The Birds Eye View Resort is completely underwater, forcing the owners to evacuate their guests. According to Tillett, cattle farmers in the community are now required to travel three miles over water to get to their livestock. In the face of all these challenges, one teacher from Belize City is braving the floodwaters to educate children in the community.

 

Paul Lopez

“Why did you still decide to come to work today?

 

Vanessa Allen, Teacher

“Well apart from it being my passion to teach. I want to still be here for my children. Well, it is my job. So, I find it very, it is not really challenging for me, because I need to be here for my kids I still make the effort to come.”

 

Paul Lopez

“Do you do it again all over on Monday?”

 

Vanessa Allen

“Well, on Monday if I have to, I will make it.”

 

Violet Moulten, a resident of Crooked Tree, has evacuated her home to seek shelter in a nearby church. She says this is the seventh time over the course of her life that she has had to leave her home due to flooding.

 

Violet Moulten, Resident, Crooked Tree

“All kinda trauma we guh through with this thing. The most thing dah the kids and the water. I have to lock up the house all the time because I don’t want them to go to the water.”

 

Paul Lopez

“Why haven’t you moved or relocated yourself and your family?”

 

Violet Moulten

“No way, I will never trade my place for nowhere, because I have been to America and I see nowhere like Crooked Tree.”

 

Reporting For News Five, I am Paul Lopez