Exactly one year ago, on October 24th, 2010, Hurricane Richard mauled and mashed up south-central and western Belize. And tonight on the anniversary of that terrible storm, Belize is under hurricane watch for another: Rina.
Tonight Rina is a category one hurricane sitting on the northeast coast of Nicaragua and, which is about 350 miles east-southeast of Belize. The storm is heading northwest at 5 mph with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.
NEMO has declared Phase II-Red 1, Hurricane watch from Belize City Northward to the Belize Mexican Border.
San Pedro will have voluntary evacuation starting at 6:00 am tomorrow and water taxis will not be allowed to bring travelers to the island.
School will also be closed for San Pedro and Caye Caulker tomorrow. The UB Gymnasium will be used as shelter for San Pedro and UB Scarlet Macaw for Caye Caulker. The Coast Guard will coordinate Caye Caulker evacuation.
Some of the public transportation in the North of the country will be disrupted to assist with coastal to inland evacuation. The public is to take note that this will affect their travel plans tomorrow.
Today, we went to NEMO Headquarters in Belmopan to get a threat assessment from Chief Met Officer Dennis Gonguez:..
Dennis Gonguez - Chief Met Officer
"Yesterday Sunday at 3pm the eighteenth tropical depression of this year hurricane season formed over the northwestern Caribbean and by 9pm this system became hurricane Rina. The system strengthened rapidly during the course of today and now it's a category 1 hurricane."
"Conditions are favorable for this system to further intensify and quite possible we will be seeing a major hurricane east of us by Tuesday night. The present projection for landfall is north along the Yucatan Peninsula, north of the country of Belize. However there are some uncertainties in the track at this time, so we are thinking about issuing hurricane watches for Belize City northwards. We are considering declaring the first phase of the national emergency plan at 3 pm for Belize City northwards. That means hurricane conditions are likely within the next 48 hours."
"The ones out at the Cayes have to start to consider evacuation tomorrow and definitely on Wednesday, so it is more urgent the for the folks in the Cayes to be prepared for evacuation for Wednesday."
"This system has potential to become, like I said a major hurricane by tomorrow night and could impact us severely come late Wednesday or Thursday"
Forecasters say the storm is expected to make landfall within the next 48 hours.
NEMO remains on full alert and regular advisories will be available on local radio and television for further advisories from NEMO and the National Met Service.
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