Important Note: This Internet version of 7 News is a verbatum
transcript of our evening television news script. Many interviews on our newscast
are conducted in Creole. In the interest of clarity for our foreign readers,
we attempt to paraphrase the Creole quotes in English
Tonight, Tropical Storm Sara is about 155 miles southeast of Belize City. The storm is currently sitting on the northern coast of Honduras and it has virtually stalled; it is moving west at only two miles per hour.
But, the maximum sustained winds remain at 50 miles per hour -and the system is headed for Belize - making landfall early on Sunday morning.
This afternoon, the Chief Met Officer gave us the current situation and forecast Sara's storm track:
Voice of: Ronald Gordon, Chief MET Officer "That the system will eventually, will stall for the next 24 hours or meander pretty much where it is. And then begin to make a move to the west northwest towards our shores later on Saturday with a potential landfall on Sunday morning, late could be before 6 a.m. between I would say 3 a.m. and mid day on Sunday. So there is still some uncertainty on where the system will track. But the most probable track is at the center of the cone is that the system goes and makes landfall somewhere between Dangriga and Placentia based on this current forecast."
"And after that, I will move forward a bit just to show you that we expect conditions to clear up after the system had moved away. Given the fact that it's currently over or near land and due to the interaction with the terrain of Honduras, we do not expect significant strengthening at least for the next 24 hours."
"After the system emerged off the coast of Honduras or sorry, move away, it will have a short window of opportunity to intensify before reaching us. And based on that, the current forecast has it reaching our shores at a 60 mile per hour tropical storm."
"Again, we don't want to stick too much to exact figures. So we advise residents to expect at least 50 to 70 miles per hour [wind] and potentially as worst case scenario or category one hurricane of winds of 74 miles per hour."
"That's the worst case and that's not in the forecast. In terms of the European model, it has the center of the low pressure system or sorry, of Sara or the low associated with it just off Honduras as we'd expect and advancing in time. This is tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Pretty much at the same location, which is an indication that yes, the system will pretty much meander in that area for the next 24 hours. After that, it makes a gradual move to the west-northwest, and according to this model, moves along the coast or near the coast of Belize again early Sunday morning."
"Important to note is that both models show significant rainfall and outerbands from the system affecting the country from today. And we have observed winds gusting to near tropical storm force winds already in those bands."
"One of the stations out in the cayes recorded, I believe, about 32 to 35 knots, which is almost the lower threshold of tropical storm force winds. And that is precisely why the country is currently under a tropical storm warning, because we expect to have sustained or even possible gusts and possible sustained winds of tropical storm force winds in these outer bands."
So the storm is projected to make landfall somewhere between Dangriga and Placencia - which is about a 20 mile span early on Sunday.
But, as we can see from the shape of it -in this storm, like so many others - the heavy conviction seems to be concentrated on the north side of it. So which communities will feel the real impact? Here's what Gordon said:
Ronald Gordon, Chief MET Officer "Official forecast is for the system to make landfall at wind speeds of 60 miles per hour. I like to give a little variance to that. So let's say 60 to 70 or even minor or category one. If the waters are warm enough and if the time is long enough, it has enough time to keep up to see over those waters. There's always a small chance it could identify a bit further or stronger than what the official forecast is going for. But let's keep with the official. Based on what is the official forecast is saying, it will make landfall somewhere between Dangriga and Placencia like I said, which means that the strong tropical storm force winds, which are about between 50 to 73 miles per hour will occur pretty much near the center, about 20 to 25 miles near that center. The weaker tropical storm force winds for persons in Belize City and further north will be about 39 mile per hour and 50 mile per hour. And that's what Belize City residents would experience."
"Most of this in my estimates would be in gust, especially in north of Belize could sustain, could get tropical storm force winds, not sustained, but in gust during showers and thunderstorms. So that's what we expect in terms of winds."
And while it is only a Tropical Storm and not a hurricane, forecasts say there will still be some storm surge.
And this video reportedly taken from Hunting Caye in the Sapodilla Cay range this evening shows how big the swells can get.
We asked Gordon where the storm surge is going with this storm:
Ronald Gordon, Chief MET Officer "In terms of storm surge, the official forecast is for about one to three feet storm surge. That three feet is on the upper end. That would indicate like a category one hurricane. If it's a tropical storm, it would be perhaps less than three feet, between one and less than three, but that would occur again in a very small area just north of where the center makes landfall. I don't want to pinpoint a center location and I don't want to call any specific village, because you know these things could wobble a bit and it could shift, but in a very small area just north of that center, you could expect less time surge to occur."
But, storm surge is far from the biggest worry with this storm. Rainfall is the biggest issue. And northern Honduras is taking the brunt of that this evening, and it will continue to do so through tomorrow.
Gordon explained the air currents that is making the storm sit on Honduras:
Ronald Gordon, Chief MET Officer "In terms of steering the system basically was being steered or is being steered actually by a high pressure ridge to the north of it and to the northwest. As I have stated in these briefings previously a ridge is like a mountain so because that system is kind of to the northwest of it it is preventing it from advancing further westward, it's blocking it so to speak and keeping it there for now."
"The forecast is for that ridge to shift to the northeast therefore like your mountain is moving out of the way and allowing the system then to push up to the west northwest at a faster speed. So that's what is what we expect. We don't expect it to stall over us as it is doing right now over Honduras."
"We expect it to move across buildings at about six to ten miles per hour speed and be away from us by late on Sunday. Originally the forecast was suggesting that that high pressure ridge that is blocking it would remain there for a bit longer and that is no longer the case and so we expect it to move off of Honduras by tomorrow afternoon or off the coast from where it currently is and begin advancing and that's precisely why it is coming in a bit earlier than was initially forecasted."
And while the storm is forecast to push past Belize in a few hours, we're already experiencing rain from the outer bands.
The met office says rainfall totals of 2 to 6 inches have already been recorded since midday on Thursday, and an additional 4 to 8 inches with locally higher
values are possible through to Sunday.
But, the western Cayo District got four inches in just a few hours yesterday evening - leading to flash floods.
We found out what caused it:
This is Bullet Tree village today. Waters form yesterday's flash floods have receded but its drains are still inundated as the Ministry of Infrastructure tries to clear the culverts.
The flash floods rolled in after 4 inches of rain fell in a few short hours yesterday evening into night.
Ronald Gordon, Chief Met Officer "Is that the western part of the country where the flooding was reported last night received the highest accumulation. With rainfall totaling to up to about 4 inches. Bullet Tree falls recorded 94.8 mm, 96.6 in Santa Elena and most of this occurred during that time of the heavy rainfall Resulting in flash flooding in those areas."
Those flash floods played out dramatically in Benque Viejo Santa Elena and San Ignacio as well which also got about 4 inches of rain. According to the chief hydrologist it was the accumulated effect of many days of rain:
Tennielle Hendy, Chief Hydrologist "What we determined happened is that recall earlier this week there was about 14 inches of rainfall that was received in the Maya Mountains in 2 different spurts I can't recall it exactly but that was received overnight and then we received additional rainfall between yesterday and yesterday morning and this morning so what we are seeing is accumulation of these flood waters making their ways down these streams. They will not all come down at once they will come down in waves according to the bank full stage and bank full means that the river cannot take anymore and when it cannot take anymore then it will basically flow over land or travel very rapidly down the system so what we have determined is that you have seen the accumulation and the different flood waves coming down. On Monday it was the Rio Hondo that was flooded and the next subsequent days it was the Guacamallo area in the Maya mountains and then we went back to the Rio Hon at certain points in time so what we are seeing are these different flood ways coming down the river systems according to what the river channel can tolerate and what it can't will spill over and depending on the volume it will then turn into a flash flood."
It has been almost a year since the last reported suspected drug plane, but reports say that last night, a Cessna 210 landed in the Frank's Eddy area in Cayo. The single engine plane had no seats inside, presumably to make room for drug cargo. It was reportedly found on the southwestern side of the Cave's Branch River on an improvised landing strip. Though police have provided no confirmation or details, we know they have been out there since early morning. Initial reports state that that type of aircraft can carry around 1,500 to 1,600 pounds of cargo when the seats are removed.
Turning back now to Tropical Storm Sara, Prime Minister John Briceno was forced to cut his trip to Mexico City short. He was attending a meeting the Board of Directors of COCESNA from which he was supposed to return tomorrow - but did so today,
As the Chairman of NEMO - the Prime Minister issued a national address this evening where he urged the public to be prepared:
And while the PM urges preparedness, are Belizeans really ready for our second tropical storm in a month? We went to the streets today to ask everyday people how they felt, and many didn't seem too concerned - especially since, according to at least one person, he knows how to swim.
Here's what they told us:
We'll have more on storm preparations at the end of the news.
It may be one of the busiest units at the KHMH, often filled with new parents huddled together in front of incubators, beset by anxiety and uncertainty, but still holding onto to the faith that their little bundle of joy, who made an early appearance into this world will soon be free of the tubes and needles and will get to go home with them.
In recognition of World Prematurity day, we took a tour of the KHMH NICU this morning and got a deeper look at the reality of caring for preemie babies. Jomarie Lanza reports.
These tiny but mighty warriors here inside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the KHMH require around the clock care and attention, as their little bodies continue to develop and grow. The NICU sees over 300+ admissions a year and almost half of them are pre term babies with 8% being under 28 weeks. It is both a delicate practice and a labor of love keeping these little ones alive and ensuring their survival, especially when there is no guarantee that each baby will make it out and get to go home. The NICU Unit Manager says that it is an effort that requires both hospital and parental involvement to get each baby on the path to living a normal healthy life.
Neroli Williams, NICU Unit Manager, KHMH "We are the only one in the country so we care for all critical newborns from 0-28 days, especially the pre term babies. All of them have to come here especially under 35 weeks of gestation because the other regions are not equipped to deal with those babies."
"For example babies that are born premature the lung is definitely not developed properly so the baby has problems breathing sometimes we have to give what we call artificial surfactant we have to put them on the ventilator most people may know as life support and we have to give them different types of oxygen after or before like either high flow or the regular oxygen through the nasal cannula or the face mask. And then the care we ask the parents to come everyday because their touch, their support and voices help the baby to survive because they remember those voices when mommy was pregnant so we ask them to come as much as it may look like they are not doing much. Them being here, their presence and touch and talking to the baby we giving them updates everyday does help."
November 17th is recognized globally as World Prematurity day, and here at the KHMH it's a time when the staff gets to see a few familiar faces, and reconnect with previous patients who spent weeks, and for some even months inside the NICU.
Neroli Williams, NICU Unit Manager, KHMH "So we try to bring them back every year so that they could interact with each other and the mothers could explain to the other parents this is what we experience and this is what the baby's life was from admission till now so they could exchange views how the care was done and services that was provided, accessible services other than KHMH so for example a baby was discharged that was 27 weeks and went home we explained that baby may have developmental delays for example when the baby supposed to start walking maybe they make take a two or three months longer or five months sometimes. Some babies don't walk until they are almost 2 so we know that's a milestone that was delayed."
"It continues throughout life for a day like today they can come and talk to each other and explain what they went through how it was in the hospital given encouragement and CD different how they are progressing in life."
Six years later, for Neima Beltran and her once precious preemie is now an Infant 2 student. She reflected on how difficult her son Ernesto's NICU journey was as he spent 21 days fighting for his life. She delivered at only 35 weeks.
Neima Beltran, Preemie Parent "I was scared because I am from Orange Walk and an ambulance brought me here to believe City and when they put me inside, they told me that Ernesto is not good and that he is not doing good so I never saw him until the doctors told me I could. And then my husband brought me here at the NICU and my surprise, I saw him with all kinds of things on him and I got frightened and I started to pray that God would do a miracle in Ernesto's life and thank God Ernesto is here and he is a smart little boy in Infant and right now he is doing good."
"When I came today I felt scared. I remembered my days here. I remember when I would come every day from Sunday to Sunday I would come and see Ernesto with my C section. It was a very painful thing for me to travel from guinea grass to here."
For the Mai family, their little miracle is now an energetic toddler. 2 year old Adara also spent some time in the NICU, and even after she was discharged, she underwent heart surgery only a year after.
Maria Mai, Preemie Parent "I knew she was small. I didn't know the cause. But as soon as they brought her out from my belly, I heard her cry so I asked the doctor. Oh, she's fine, she is healthy and the doctor told me that I need to wait. I have to wait. And that's how she was born and then a couple hours later her oxygen was starting to decrease and then because I am in Nurse I knew that was something serious so they had to rush her to Belize because she was born in Orange Walk hospital. And then they rushed her to Belize City and they brought her to the NICU. She only weighed 2 ½ pounds so she was very very tiny. and then they told me the heart was the problem. She had a serious heart condition so they did an ultrasound to her heart, and they told me she had a malformation and she would not make it."
But Adara did make it, and her dad says that even now he still reflects on all that they went through to bring his now bouncing baby girl back to a picture of health.
Rubio Mai, Preemie Parent "Well for her it's a blessing everyday we see her running playing sometimes the day is not enough for her because sometimes it's 10 o'clock in the night and she does not want to sleep and sometimes I get frustrated but then I say no there is no need to get frustrated because we begged God so much for her to live I know we have Adara here."
Switching topics now - the case of the constitutional challenge by the Toledo Alcalde Association of the Village Councils act continues in the Supreme court. It took an interesting turn this week when Justice Nadine Nabi handed down a decision approving anthropologist Richard Wilk as an expert to produce a report on the history of the Alcalde system.
The government side argued against it because the widely published Will recently pleaded guilty to the possession of child pornography in the USA. He was sentenced to two years of home detention which began last month.
The attorney for the government in this case, Andrew Marshalleck told us via zoom why he objected to Wilk:
Andrew Marshalleck, SC, Representing GoB in Constit. Challenge to Village Councils Act "We objected to Dr. Wilk on the basis of his his having pleaded guilty to certain criminal offenses in the US relating to child pornography. I'm not terribly familiar with the details of it. And he's apparently under house arrest at present. So we thought he he wasn't the type of person to be appointed for this purpose, that he lacked, I think the words I used, was the moral turpitude."
Jules Vasquez "But I think the other side argued, and they argued successfully, that that his his academic work and his expertise in maya history had not been impeached."
Andrew Marshalleck "Well, our position on that is that the academic is not indivisible from the person. It's the same person you're talking about. And how do you take his word? Or the first thing he has to do is to swear on the Bible and promise to tell the truth or otherwise affirm it. How do you treat with it?"
"Yesterday, the decision was handed down and the court accepted the appointment. The court expressed concerns about the delays this has caused to the proceedings and wanted to get ahead with it, but also expressed some reservations and made it clear that court was not condoning his conduct in any way, but approved the use of his services for this purpose."
The attorneys for the other side are Godfrey Smith and Leslie Mendez. In a statement via text message, she told us, quote, "Neither the court nor the parties condone the actions of Dr. Wilk whatsoever. His conviction, however, does not detract from his expertise. Dr. Wilk has conducted extensive field and archival research in Belize. He has been accepted by the court as an expert, and his testimony was cited in the various judgments. The rigour of his academic work has remained unchallenged. All parties acknowledge that a proper and fair determination of the matter requires expert evidence on Maya governance, and Dr. Wilk is among the few qualified individuals to provide such evidence. The AG did not present any alternatives, and the Claimants had in fact proposed another expert which was rejected by the AG. Today, the Court accepted Dr. Wilk as an expert on account of his competence and extensive research in Maya villages in southern Belize."
We also spoke to Marshalleck in his role as Chairman of BEL.
As we've been reporting, Belize's power generation capacity problems persist and they are carrying over into 2025.
BEL is warning about the possibility of rolling blackouts around the dry, hot season in April of next year. That's why they've requested that GOB declare a power generation emergency so that they can green light power production projects without all the red tape.
According to the chairman, it all comes down to the weather. If the heat picks up, the way it did over the past couple of years, the demand will outstrip supply.
However, there are some measures BEL has put in place that may provide extra energy in times of scarcity. He told us more via Zoom.
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, BEL "They tested it. I believe up to yesterday was giving 16 and a half megawatts, which is more than enough to supply all of San Pedro."
Jules Vasquez: "Heading into the into the next year's dry. What do you all anticipate with this being online and the additional power at mile 8, and also what have you all heard from the PUC, if anything?"
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, BEL "Yes, we still anticipate that there will be problems meeting overall demand if the weather pattern that is now evolving repeats itself the last two years and if conditions in Mexico continue as they are because they are experiencing shortfalls as well. And then that trickles over to us because when they have to meet their demand, of course they can't supply us with all the power they can otherwise normally supply. So we anticipate that there will be periods of there will be some difficulty meeting demand, assuming everything goes the way they did the last two years, which I have no reason to expect that there will be much different."
Jules Vasquez: "So in the best case scenario, what do you foresee happening to forestall, you know, imminent outages in the second quarter of 2025?"
Andrew Marshalleck, Chairman, BEL "Well, it all depends on whether if we have the same weather patterns, if it's nice and cool as it is now, there will be no problem. But of course, you can't plan on that. In terms of additional capacity, we have the additional capacity provided by the the Westlake GT and the additional capacity provided by the San Pedro GT. But even with those, if there's significant shortfall on the Mexican side, there will be not enough to meet all demand and you will end up with some load shedding like you did last year."
"But we are a little better off than we were last year because we do at least have the GT's, the additional capacity of the GT's, which is an additional it's hard to one, but that used to be 19 so an additional ten from Westlake and an additional 20 from San Pedro. So we do have an additional 30 megawatts on the system available to us that wasn't available last year."
"The solution to this has been to introduce utility scale solar. We know this and if that's introduced, the whole situation will regularize within a few years. So the priority is to introduce it as quickly as we can and that's why we've gone to the emergency procurement."
"What that is, is not rooftop solar, people putting panels on a rooftop, It's people installing solar over acres and acres of land, doing a solar farm and then dumping that power on to the grid directly."
If you've ever wanted to learn to use a sword, you might want to try fencing. It may not seem like a sport that's thriving in Belize, but the Belize National Fencing Federation makes it easy to join. And right now, they've got the help from Belizean-Irish fencing coach, Ramel Flores.
Flores has been practicing for 8 years and after about two decades away, he's finally returned home to bring his passion to his home country, and try to encourage more people to become fencers.
Courtney Menzies met up with him during his evening practice yesterday and has this story.
Ramel Flores moved from Belize to Ireland with his parents when he was still a child. While he had practiced martial arts here, it was on the other side of the world that he fell in love with fencing.
The sport itself isn't well known in Belize, but it has been taught in the city for the last 12 years. And in a combined effort to not only reconnect with his birth country, but also bring more attention to the sport he loves, Flores made the trip home for a month-long fencing program.
Ramel Flores, Coach, Causeway Empowerment Program "The Causeway Empowerment Program is based on using the sport of fencing to empower young people and inspire them for the future. Over the past couple years, I've been privileged enough to be a coach. I've been able to not only be inspired by my students over the years that they've developed their skills and become more confident people but it's inspired me to realize that fencing is such a powerful sport in allowing you to build your confidence, build your self-worth, but also become a good swordswoman or man and also a great athlete at the end, achieving your goals."
"The main reason why was for me to reconnect with my people. Reconnect with my roots. I think especially being away for so long, you lose track of who you are and where you're from. I'm quite privileged knowing that my parents still instilled that culture into me. And then I realized the power of fencing, I wanted to give that back and use it as a skill and a tool to work with young people in Belize."
Flores and his girlfriend, who have both been fencing for almost a decade, say they've been impressed with the few students they've taught so far.
Ramel Flores, Coach, Causeway Empowerment Program "Belizeans make fantastic athletes. We can see that in our cycling, our karate that we compete in Guatemala all the time. And in everything we do, our track and field. So I really believe that Belize has the potential to go worldwide with their fencing. I have had the privilege today of training with a young gentleman, comes from a karate background, but within moments of just fine tuning and tweaking, he's already excelling. He has that potential."
"We're already looking at a return trip for next year, looking around at that November period again, and we're already looking at different programs and outreaches that we'll connect with again."
Gabrielle Swan, Coach, Causeway Empowerment Program "It has been excellent. The young Belizeans we've been working with here have been excellent, they've got so much potential, they're great students, they're excellent fencers, I'm really looking forward to continuing to work with them. We're speaking to a lot of ones at UB as well and they were very enthusiastic to give fencing a go and I'm really looking forward to their upcoming fencing club which hopefully will be set up very soon and I just know for a fact they're going to do very well and they pick it up."
And Swan particularly encouraged young women to join the sport despite how daunting it may seem.
Gabrielle Swan, Coach, Causeway Empowerment Program "Even though fencing can be a bit male dominated, I would say just go and do it because you in that position, you as a fencer even if you're one of the few girls there, or rather few women there, be the inspiration that young girls need, be the inspiration for young girls because they see you in that position, they see you maybe as a coach and they will be more inclined to join so be the swordswoman that young girls aspire to be."
And for those who may be considering it but are still on the fence, Flores explained that fencing is not just a hobby, but a way to build character.
Ramel Flores, Coach, Causeway Empowerment Program "Fencing is such a powerful sport. It has a long history, especially within Europe and then within the US over the past couple days. But I think the big essential thing about fencing is that it instills confidence, discipline but also self control because there's nothing like running into a sword and knowing you could come out okay."
Flores has been in Belize City since Sunday, but this weekend he still be traveling south, and then will be heading west to hopefully attract more students.
If you want to get involved with fencing, you can contact the Belize Fencing Federation on their Facebook page.
Last night, Miss Universe held its preliminary competition, where the contestants showed off their national costumes as well as their swimsuits and evening gowns. Belize's contestant, Halima Hoy, graced the stage with her costume, representing the deer dance, but also bringing awareness to climate change. Her evening gown was also inspired by the national flower, the black orchid.
It was a night of glitz and glam before the big show, and today we spoke via Zoom with the national director as well as Hoy's husband about how it went.
The option to vote can be found on the Miss Universe Belize Facebook page.
The latest 6:00 pm update from NEMO on Tropical Storm Sara confirms that it maintains maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour, while it continues to move west at two miles per hour. A tropical storm warning remains in effect for the entire coast of Belize, including all the Cayes in Belizean waters.
But as we have been stressing the main threat from this system will be heavy rainfall and flood warnings remain in effect. Here's the chief hydrologist.
Tennielle Hendy, Chief Hydrologist "We still have our flood warnings in effect for the Rio Hondo, The Macal, Mopan and Belize rivers. Of interesting concern is that on the Belize River the levels at the crooked tree lagoon are increasing but they are expected to remain below the causeway. The Three dam facilities are still spilling and what we are seeing in the north is the decreasing flood levels which is expected at Blue Creek, Santa Cruz, San Antonio, San Roman and Douglas we are now seeing those flood waters increasing towards the coast. Moving right into our flash flooding update as you can see the soil moisture is very high and saturated in this central region of the country. We do not have any eminent flash flood threats in any of our model time series which is 1, 3 and 6 hour. Same is for the persistent flash flood threats and for our flash flood guidance. Of not we are seeing positive indications for landslides in the country. You can see if here for Honduras but for Belize we just have some areas in the north that we will need to be monitoring for landslides."
The option to vote can be found on the Miss Universe Belize Facebook page.
And while those are the issues on land, what about the seas? During Tropical Storm Nadine we saw water taxi's making runs even as it was making landfall, and the airport never closed.
What will happen this time? Here's the director of NEMO:
Voice of: Daniel Mendez, Nat'l NEMO Coordinator "We have received information that the PGIA will continue to function today as normal. Operations on Saturday may be impacted so passengers are asked to expect delays. This will be reviewed tomorrow and will be updated as necessary, so please look out for a statement from the Department of Civil Aviation."
"Also, water taxes will continue to operate today. Operations will close at midday tomorrow. Also, please expect a note coming out from the Belize Port Authority. Ports also will operate as normal today, but these will also cease at midday tomorrow."
"Again, listen out for a statement from the Belize Port Authority. An update on bus operations will be sent out later today."
And this afternoon, the BELIZE PORT AUTHORITY put out a NOTICE TO MARINERS confirming that All water taxi services within areas under the Tropical Storm Warning are ordered to cease operations by midday on Saturday. Operations will remain suspended until the ALL CLEAR is given. All seaports in affected areas are to close by 2:00 PM on Saturday. And a Small Craft Warning is in effect - Mariners operating small vessels are advised to seek or remain in safe harbor and not to venture out to sea.
And BEL put out a notice this evening saying, quote, "Our teams, resources, and equipment have been mobilized to ensure that we are prepared to assess and recover from any impacts of the approaching storm.
In the event there is a loss of power supply due to damage from Tropical Storm Sara, we will dispatch our teams to conduct repairs and restore power as soon as the "All Clear" is given and it is safe for them to do so. Our teams cannot work on power lines in adverse weather or under conditions that are unsafe for them." End quote.
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Tonight, Tropical Storm Sara is about 155 miles southeast of Belize City. The storm is currently sitting on the northern coast of Honduras and it has virtually stalled; it is moving west at only two miles per hour.
So the storm is projected to make landfall somewhere between Dangriga and Placencia - which is about a 20 mile span early on Sunday.
"Most of this in my estimates would be in gust, especially in north of Belize could sustain, could get tropical storm force winds, not sustained, but in gust during showers and thunderstorms. So that's what we expect in terms of winds."
And while the storm is forecast to push past Belize in a few hours, we're already experiencing rain from the outer bands.
"What we determined happened is that recall earlier this week there was about 14 inches of rainfall that was received in the Maya Mountains in 2 different spurts I can't recall it exactly but that was received overnight and then we received additional rainfall between yesterday and yesterday morning and this morning so what we are seeing is accumulation of these flood waters making their ways down these streams. They will not all come down at once they will come down in waves according to the bank full stage and bank full means that the river cannot take anymore and when it cannot take anymore then it will basically flow over land or travel very rapidly down the system so what we have determined is that you have seen the accumulation and the different flood waves coming down. On Monday it was the Rio Hondo that was flooded and the next subsequent days it was the Guacamallo area in the Maya mountains and then we went back to the Rio Hon at certain points in time so what we are seeing are these different flood ways coming down the river systems according to what the river channel can tolerate and what it can't will spill over and depending on the volume it will then turn into a flash flood."
It has been almost a year since the last reported suspected drug plane, but reports say that last night, a Cessna 210 landed in the Frank's Eddy area in Cayo. The single engine plane had no seats inside, presumably to make room for drug cargo. It was reportedly found on the southwestern side of the Cave's Branch River on an improvised landing strip. Though police have provided no confirmation or details, we know they have been out there since early morning. Initial reports state that that type of aircraft can carry around 1,500 to 1,600 pounds of cargo when the seats are removed. 
It may be one of the busiest units at the KHMH, often filled with new parents huddled together in front of incubators, beset by anxiety and uncertainty, but still holding onto to the faith that their little bundle of joy, who made an early appearance into this world will soon be free of the tubes and needles and will get to go home with them.
"We are the only one in the country so we care for all critical newborns from 0-28 days, especially the pre term babies. All of them have to come here especially under 35 weeks of gestation because the other regions are not equipped to deal with those babies."
"I was scared because I am from Orange Walk and an ambulance brought me here to believe City and when they put me inside, they told me that Ernesto is not good and that he is not doing good so I never saw him until the doctors told me I could. And then my husband brought me here at the NICU and my surprise, I saw him with all kinds of things on him and I got frightened and I started to pray that God would do a miracle in Ernesto's life and thank God Ernesto is here and he is a smart little boy in Infant and right now he is doing good."
"I knew she was small. I didn't know the cause. But as soon as they brought her out from my belly, I heard her cry so I asked the doctor. Oh, she's fine, she is healthy and the doctor told me that I need to wait. I have to wait. And that's how she was born and then a couple hours later her oxygen was starting to decrease and then because I am in Nurse I knew that was something serious so they had to rush her to Belize because she was born in Orange Walk hospital. And then they rushed her to Belize City and they brought her to the NICU. She only weighed 2 ½ pounds so she was very very tiny. and then they told me the heart was the problem. She had a serious heart condition so they did an ultrasound to her heart, and they told me she had a malformation and she would not make it."
"Well for her it's a blessing everyday we see her running playing sometimes the day is not enough for her because sometimes it's 10 o'clock in the night and she does not want to sleep and sometimes I get frustrated but then I say no there is no need to get frustrated because we begged God so much for her to live I know we have Adara here."
Switching topics now - the case of the constitutional challenge by the Toledo Alcalde Association of the Village Councils act continues in the Supreme court. It took an interesting turn this week when Justice Nadine Nabi handed down a decision approving anthropologist Richard Wilk as an expert to produce a report on the history of the Alcalde system.
Andrew Marshalleck
If you've ever wanted to learn to use a sword, you might want to try fencing. It may not seem like a sport that's thriving in Belize, but the Belize National Fencing Federation makes it easy to join. And right now, they've got the help from Belizean-Irish fencing coach, Ramel Flores.
"The Causeway Empowerment Program is based on using the sport of fencing to empower young people and inspire them for the future. Over the past couple years, I've been privileged enough to be a coach. I've been able to not only be inspired by my students over the years that they've developed their skills and become more confident people but it's inspired me to realize that fencing is such a powerful sport in allowing you to build your confidence, build your self-worth, but also become a good swordswoman or man and also a great athlete at the end, achieving your goals."
Gabrielle Swan, Coach, Causeway Empowerment Program 
And while those are the issues on land, what about the seas? During Tropical Storm Nadine we saw water taxi's making runs even as it was making landfall, and the airport never closed.
And this afternoon, the BELIZE PORT AUTHORITY put out a NOTICE TO MARINERS confirming that All water taxi services within areas under the Tropical Storm Warning are ordered to cease operations by midday on Saturday. Operations will remain suspended until the ALL CLEAR is given. All seaports in affected areas are to close by 2:00 PM on Saturday. And a Small Craft Warning is in effect - Mariners operating small vessels are advised to seek or remain in safe harbor and not to venture out to sea.
