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Rising Northern Waters Force Families to Shelters
posted (June 9, 2020)
And while that family mourns their father and husband, others in the north are experiencing a different kind of tragedy. They're being forced, by rising flood waters, to flee their homes.

Tonight, many have been put up in shelters, some of them on higher ground and some of them in other villages all together.

This evening we spoke via phone to NEMO district coordinator Elodio Aragon Sr. He gave us a glimpse into the devastation that's been caused up north and the lengths his team has had to go to to ensure the safety of all those affected.

Voice of: Elodio Aragon Sr., NEMO District Coordinator, Orange Walk
"Here in the north we are experiencing flooding, yes, we have, actually, we have 5 areas that have created problems in the sense that they are being overflowed with water. We have Trial Farm Village, it has a lot of water, We have Douglas."

"Well Douglas is the biggest problem we have. Right now it is being overrun with the water we have taken out over 20 people, 20 families have come out from there already, we have had to house them, find where to put them in shelters. We have Santa Cruz , Santa Cruz is right next to the Rio Hondo and it has a problem because again it is being flooded. We have had to take out people to put in shelters. San Antonio is not that bad with the flooding except it's cut off from the main road they can't cross. The water on the road is about 5 feet right now, and therefore the villagers cannot come out, we have to put boats there. This morning at 5 we started putting boats to ferry out the people, we have done that in San Antonio and we have done that in San Roman."

"Well tremendous, tremendous losses, tremendous losses, some of them lose all their crops that they have, their houses are damaged, their sceptics for example in Douglas not a sceptic would be good it would be over flooded. That is why the moment it begins to be over flooded the entire village we have to take out everybody because it floods. It gets into their sceptic thanks and you know it's unhealthy for them. Douglas is the main village that suffers a tremendous loss. Others would lose their crops their, you know, cane fields and things like that. So no it's a tremendous loss here fortunately it's not a loss for the entire district of Orange Walk it's only like I would say just 5 or six villages the rest can manage."

At this hour water levels in the villages mentioned continue to rise; many who have escaped were only able to do so by dorey's or other small boats. Footage for this story was courtesy of CTV3.

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