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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