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Jules Vasquez reporting
If you are wondering why these cattle have a lean and hungry look, it's because the cattle in this part of the Belize River Valley are starving. The river has run far over the banks and covered much of the available pasture land.

Olivia Moody, Chairlady - Maypen Village
"Right now the people of Maypen; there are 4 families that have livestock and I think they are the ones that needs more assistance."

Reporter
"How long has this been the situation?"

Olivia Moody, Chairlady - Maypen Village
"About 3 weeks since the water got high. as you know the water is not the disaster, its the impact behind which is the mud killing the grass. The cattle starts to punish because they have nowhere to lie down and nothing to eat."

Derrol Rhaburn, Maypen Resident
"It's affecting me now with my animals."

Jules Vasquez
"Explain to me?"

Derrol Rhaburn, Maypen Resident
"I have like 19 heads of animals and right now the flood have the grass covered."

Jules Vasquez
"What are your livestock experiencing?"

Derrol Rhaburn, Maypen Resident
"All I would want is to get some food to feed them when the water goes down because when it goes down, only mud will be left on the grass."

For Buntin Moody AND HIS OVER 200 head, it's a crisis.

Buntin Moody, Cattle-Owner
"They need food, they are hungry. You see how the place if flooded out?"

Reporter
"How are you coping with feeding them?"

Buntin Moody, Cattle-Owner
"You see an area of grass at the back? It was there that I was feeding them from but it's all flooded now."

Jules Vasquez
"Are you at risk of losing some of your cattle?"

Buntin Moody, Cattle-Owner
"I already lost a couple of them."

Jules Vasquez
"How much is the value of what you lost?"

Buntin Moody, Cattle-Owner
"I only lost about two, which is like $2,000. This is not half of the cattle, I have 190 head around, but I can't even take care of them. I have to herd them, they are punishing. I have nowhere to take them."

Jules Vasquez
"If your situation remains as it you will lose a lot of head of cattle?"

Buntin Moody, Cattle-Owner
"All of them will die."

That caused a somewhat testy exchange between Moody and his area representative. Moody says the government should help them - Castro says he should have acted months ago, when the water started to come down, before the river covered the savannah.

Jules Vasquez
"Do you sympathize with your brethren down the river Mr. Buntin?"

Dudley Hendy, Chairman - Isabella Bank
"Yes I sympathize with him, but sometimes he is hard. He doesn't want to sell and I told him over to sell some of those animals because you will find yourself in problems and he doesn't want to listen - that's was his mistake."

But his problems aren't the only ones in this area. Whipping around the bends in the swollen river in a coast guard flat bottom vessel - the people on this side of the river have been cut off completely:

Olivia Moody, Chairlady - Maypen Village
"The entire village is affected. We have 10 families and they all need help."

Jules Vasquez
"Why are those families in need of these supplies?"

Olivia Moody, Chairlady - Maypen Village
"If you know the way how we are in and out, we have 5 miles off the Northern Highway and that road is completely flooded."

Jules Vasquez
"You all are stranded by road too?"

Derrol Rhaburn, Maypen Resident
"Yes because the road is full of water. I use a canoe to get around. Right now I want to go by the road and I will paddle all the way in that dorey."

Jules Vasquez
"How long will that take?"

Derrol Rhaburn, Maypen Resident
"That will only take like 45 minutes."

These Red Cross volunteers are here to distribute supplies from their organization. The effort is coordinated with NEMO utilizing coast guard manpower and resources.

Today they went out with area representative Edmund Castro - who did get a lot of chances to press the flesh, but he also had to be the "best riding horse" for the Red Cross volunteers who didn't have rubber boots

Olivia Moody, Chairlady - Maypen Village
"Due to the Belize Red Cross, this is what they always do in this time whenever we are affected by flood. This morning this is the first supply that we have received and this will be continuing until we need the assistant."

"We get flour, rice, beans, can food and milk and we have first aid kid, hygiene kit, bucket and....."

The supplies will keep coming delivered to their front doors for the next few weeks - or as long as they need it - until the water recedes.

While the Red Cross supplies are sufficient for the time being, best estimates are that despite best efforts there will be loss of valuable livestock, and fears are that those losses could be significant.

As for Buntin Moody and his over 200 head of trapped cattle - Castro can't help him move his cattle to a new area, but he says he will try and help with some feed.