As we’ve shown you, this morning’s 7.1 magnitude quake damaged homes in the village of Monkey River. North of Monkey River in Independence Village, homes were shaken but none collapsed. That is the good news. The bad news is that the powerful quake cut off the water supply for all of the village’s three thousand residents, when the reservoir crumbled to the ground. Keith Swift has the story from Independence.

Keith Swift Reporting,
This is Independence Village’s 18,000 gallon water reservoir – or what is left of it and the thirty foot tower that it stood on because it collapsed this morning around 2:20.

George Murray, Village Chairman
“I heard when something dropped and immediately I told my wife that is the tank and I came out with a flashlight, because the light went off also, I came out with a flashlight and came and saw the tank on the ground and it was all darkness at that time. At about a quarter to three the lights came back here.”

Keith Swift,
Were you frightened?

George Murray,
“Well not exactly. My wife was frightened. You know how woman stand.”

Tony Zabaneh, Independence Village President
“From about twenty past two thereabout I felt my house shaking and like two or three dogs under my bed and went up in the air about two feet and from there I didn’t know what the hell to do and I jumped out my bed right into bathroom and urine started to come like you wouldn’t believed. I piss up myself.”

Dale Antonio, Independence Village Resident
“Sudden one I feel my bed started to dance punta. First I felt like it was my daughter jumping around on the bed. I was looking to chase her and then the bed started to rack even more so then I figured it is a earthquake this and then it started to rock even harder. The house to me felt like it was rooting out of the ground. It was frightening because it was a cement foundation and it feel like it was raising.”

Eugenia Assi, Independence Village Resident
“When my husband hollered at me, he said earthquake earthquake and I hurry jumped out of my bed and I sit down right on my bed and just get lost and then my next son who slept in hammock, he wanted to know what was going on.”

Jermaine Lozano, Independence Village Resident
“All of us suddenly feel this tremendous shaking and right away we could have tell that it was a earthquake.”

Dale Antonio,
“I told my family to get underneath the doorway to make sure they are safe and to hold on tight because if anything dropped we would have been safe underneath the whe di think mi name. And it lasted very long. It was a shocking and frightening experience. Like after that I couldn’t even sleep. Like the whole village was just in uproar. It was very frightening. It nearly took my heart away.”

Eugenia Assi,
“And when we get up and checked outside, all of the people were awake and the dogs were barking and things in the house, only bicycle and kitchen things dropped down.”

And while it shook residents, it collapsed the reservoir which cut off the village’s water supply.

Dwight Neal, Water Board Chairman
“At the moment there is no supply because the line that you see them working on behind me is the main line coming from the pump. At the moment because that main line has been broken, there is no water to the village. As soon as we get that repaired, technically we do not need the tank because the pump can supply directly into the village but in most instances you don’t do that for preservation of your pump and to get added pressure within your system.”

George Murray,
“By 12 o’clock this will be fixed. The reservoir, that depends on the government because I hope they will push it. This is a big village, we have nearly 5,000 people in this village.”

And while the village prepared to restore water within hours – for some villagers – returning to a normal life won’t be as easy.

Jermaine Lozano,
“I think it brings every Belizean back to reality. We are still a part of this earth and people basically take things for granted and it is a really frightening experience and I hope we never have to go through it again.”

The water supply was restored by 2 pm. Again that is only temporary and the village will need to rebuild the eighteen thousand gallon reservoir. It had been originally built in 1984.