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Jordan Village Has A Thatch Building For A Hurricane Shelter
posted (June 24, 2013)
Last week we showed you the epic flooding in the Stann Creek district caused by TD2. After that, public attention subsided, the NEMO updates stop – and you might have thought that was it for storm related flooding. But, how wrong we were! The villages in southwestern Toledo have been completely cut off by massive floods, and dozens have been crowded into tiny shelters. It's a calamity that has gone mostly un-reported, and yesterday Monica Bodden went into the villages of Blue Creek and Jordan to find a slowly unfolding disaster:

Monica Bodden reporting
This flooded stretch of water lay still on the road as we made several attempts to cross in our vehicle, All were unsuccessful.






So my cameraman and I decided to take the risk, and walk through the flooded waters as we made our way towards the village of Jordan which was about 2 and a half miles from where we were. The further we walked, the higher the water became, at one point, we had to stop, the water got as high as 4 feet.

But luckily for us, we managed to bum a ride with this truck loaded with villagers who were on their way to the village to check up on their properties. It was quite a bumpy ride but their kind gesture was well appreciated.








In no time, we were in the village of Jordan. As we entered, we noticed this thatch structure and were told this is the assigned flood sheltered for a village with the population of 90 residents.







Villager
"The flooding started on Thursday morning - this unexpected flood. We were used to seeing flood, that was normal, but this one was way higher than expected so when the flood started we informed all the villagers that they needed to come out because the water seemed to just come up and come up. We told them that we were moving them to this flooding shelter here and they stayed here for two days. On Thursday we informed NEMO about it but they ignored our call and told us that the people in Jordan are used to this flood. Yes I will agree with that but at the same time we needed help because the flood was so high. We moved the people over here and there was no food, no stove to cook and the flooding shelter was leaking so it wasn't a safe place for the people to stay in here because they still got wet."





Villager
"I went home because this little shelter was too tight and my children were hungry and suffering so I went home around 4 so I went to try and cook something for them there but it isn't safe - it's muddy and watery and dirty. After that the flood was still there so I came back and they told us to go to Blue creek."

Monica Bodden
"While staying at the shelter here in the village - could you describe it to me?"

Villager
"It was too tight and it was leaking, it rained and most of us got wet there and we couldn't cook in the kitchen because the zinc was leaking and it was raining and it isn't covered good so all the water was splashing around - that's the hardest part we see here so I'm glad Blue creek people invited us to go there so we went to shelter there."

Monica Bodden
"How many families could fit into the shelter?"

Villager
"Just four families."

With the help of their Area Representative, Oscar Requena, the villagers were evacuated by two boats on Friday night to the neighboring village of Blue Creek- where they remain.

Villager
"Mr. Oscar Requena had assisted us in getting some boats to evacuate the people to Blue Creek but there we had contacted several people to help us and they were assisting us with food and clothes and we were still asking more people to help us. The flooding has gone down but in the house it's still muddy - it's not safe for the people to come back inside their house because we understand that the area is contaminated because a lof latrine's overflowed and it isn't safe. So we asked the people to stay at the shelter because it's dry where they are right now and coming right now, we believe it isn't safe for them to come. After it gets dry, we will ask people to clean their house with clorox because we understand it is infected - it is not safe for our children."

Villagers in Kekchi (translated in English by another villager)
"He's saying that on Thursday the rivers was flooded and it came way to the house and it didn't reach here. This time it was a flash flood, it was very high. The river was flooded all the way into the village and to the bridge and the river went into his house and he can't cook food because both of his houses are wet"

According to the villagers, the water started rising on Thursday morning at around 6am, by 7am, it was already inside their homes. But while the flooded water has gone down in most parts of the village, it has left these villagers in distress since most of their yearly crops have been destroyed by water- even the ones inside their storerooms.





Villager
"It destroyed mostly our food was destroyed by flood because you can see this corn was packed in this bag here, most of them are wet. If you could look at that side that is stacked - half of the amount of that corn was wet by the flood and those corn we cannot use again because it already has a different scent. It had three days and two nights of water in this storage house."

But where have NEMO been in all of this? Well there are allegations being made by villagers that they had first informed the NEMO office in Punta Gorda Town on Thursday morning about the situation in their village, but was only insulted by a NEMO representative who showed up after on Saturday around midday which was 2 days later. By that time, 75 villagers were already evacuated to higher grounds.

Villager
"We contacted NEMO on Thursday and they refused to answer and to come and assist us at that time. They told the chairman that we needed to find a way to live in our community and that they were tired of working with Jordan and that our people don't want anything - that they have assisted Jordan many times. I asked him if he assisted Jordan and he said yes, NEMO and Red Cross work together and that they built the shelter. I told them that isn't a big help and so when we heard he said that like that, we got together and asked the village council and all the villagers together that we needed to do something to ask for help. If NEMO couldn't make it then we will ask other people for help, we started taking pictures and whatever is happening here to send through the web so that people can understand and believe that what we are doing and to show him that we need help and they are not responding to help us and that is what I'm asking for,"

With the flooding of the Jordan Road, the villages of Midway, Poite, Conejo, Crique Sarco, Dolores, Otoxha, San Lucas and Santa Theresa are also cut off. PG TV reports that the Barranco road is also flooded.


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