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The Stann Creek River Valley Is Like A Basin
posted (June 19, 2013)
But, while that is that situation right now, the reality is that the Stann Creek River Valley is flood prone.

We didn't get to explore that story fully yesterday, so tonight, Daniel Ortiz revisits the floods from TD 2 in the context of what these low-lying communities face every year during the hurricane season.

Here's his report:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
Communities in the Stann Creek River Valley experience flooding every year, and so, they've learned to live with the lingering threat.

Sarawee Village is only a few miles away from Hope Creek, and as a result, it is susceptible to the negative effects of the North Stann Creek River.

Yesterday, we found sections of the village under water; one on side, the flooding was minimal, just below knee height.

Some of the young men of the village used their yards like swimming pools, where they simply enjoyed themselves as if it was just another rainy day.

The other sections were completely cut off, passable only if the person waded through waist deep water, with a very strong current resembling that of a river.

Keep in mind, though, that what you're looking at are actual streets these people travel on normally, not some obscure river hidden away in the far corner of the village.

The adults told us that they've come to expect this sort of thing, so it wasn't any surprise.








Luis Perez - Resident, Sarawee Village
"A hurricane that passed throught the year 2000 and from then we started to have that problem with flooding, they come more higher. People now as they hear rain is coming, they start to know that flood is coming."






Robert Alexander Young - Resident, Sarawee Village
"My property experienced three flood already. The first of June flood, it went in the house about two feet and a half. But this time I don't know because I went to work yesterday evening and I can't get in up to now."

Daniel Ortiz
"Have you looked at it to see what it looks like?"

Robert Alexander Young
"Not exactly because I can't reach becaues it's too high, but my neighbor told me it went into the house."

Daniel Ortiz reporting
"So you expect that there will be major water damage to your home? Is that something that you regularly have to worry about?"

Robert Alexander Young
"Yes. Anytime flood come"

Daniel Ortiz reporting "Is flooding in this area something that is regular?"

Robert Alexander Young
"Regular"

Daniel Ortiz reporting "And how do you replace all of these items that have water damage?"

Robert Alexander Young
"Sometimes you have to spend the money to get it back or they give you as a flood victim and that is how you get some of the articles."

Daniel Ortiz reporting
"Right now you expect you will have some inventory to deal with and try to find out what is damaged."

Robert Alexander Young
"Yes because the one First of June, I lost a stove and a refrigerator and I didn't get that back."

Gerald McLaughlyn - Resident, Sarawee Village
"From I've been living here it's always been like this when it rains."

Daniel Ortiz reporting "Do you guys expect this every year?"

Gerald McLaughlyn
"Sometimes three to four times for the year it happens like this."

Daniel Ortiz reporting "And you guys how do you deal with it having to deal with flood on a regular basis?"

Gerald McLaughlyn
"Well we just take it as it comes, I'm a taxi driver. I work taxi in Dangriga town but from yesterday I came from work I didn't bring my car home because I knew this was going to happen so I left it on higher grounds."

Daniel Ortiz reporting "It looks like you will have to run taxi on a boat today."

Gerald McLaughlyn
"I will have to take the day off and hopefully it goes down this evening. It looks like it's starting to go down because we couldn't have seen that well and now you can see it."

Daniel Ortiz reporting "Do you expect it to remain like this for a next day or two?"

Gerald McLaughlyn
"If it doesn't rain tonight then maybe it might go down from tonight."

Daniel Ortiz reporting "Has anyone had any kind of mishaps because of flooding like this in this village?"

Gerald McLaughlyn
"No., we're always prepared."

Sittee River Village, also in the Stann Creek District, is about 20 miles away from both of these communities, and to get there, you must travel on 2 separate roads. However, one other thing it shares with these other villages is that there is a river which runs through it.

It was mostly untouched by Tropical Depression 2, but driving along the river, the street dips too low and the riverbanks start to spill water unto it.

To provide transport over this flooded area, a few villagers dedicate their time to help out. But, like this effort, all the communities seem to have learned to adapt to the quick rise in water:

Elroy Wade - Chairman, Hope Creek Village
"They knew exactly what to do. Whatever stuff that would have been damaged by water they raised it up to a certain height. Stuff that could be dried out they didn't really worry about that. We have families that are in water right now, some of their stuff has gotten wet or destroyed by the water but they chose to let that happen because this water rose very slowly. They had time and notice to do whatever necessary step they needed to do."

Mariano Ack - Resident, Hope Creek Village
"The Chairman himself, you see him running back and forth and doing his thing and working with the community and the villagers. I got to see that everybody was aware of it and they knew that this isn't something to play with, it's very serious - it's life and danger so you have to move out."

It's one thing for the residents to be prepared, but quite another to be cut off from each other, and from assistance of the National Emergency Management Organization.

That's exactly what happened with Hopkins, where vehicular traffic was strangled due to the floods.

The same thing, to a minor extent, happened at mile 5 on the Hummingbird Highway, which isolated Hope Creek from Sarawee and Dangriga, the NEMO Hub in the South.

This is the biggest challenge these communities face because getting supplies, relief, and emergency assistance past these choke points become dangerous and time consuming, where life and death could be mere minutes apart.And one place our news team didn't get to was mile 31 on the Southern Highway near Georgetown. That's an area where the road caved in. these images provided to us by A.L. construction show that what started as just a hole in the road – ended up in it being completely undermined beneath. A.L. construction had a division nearby and so they responded and had traffic flowing again in a couple of hours.

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