Yesterday a contingent of Ministers toured the flood affected areas and Jules Vasquez reports:

The Albion islands - so called because the mass of land forms an island between the Rio Hondo and one of its channels, the Blur River, or Blue Creek. The communities within that area, San Antonio, Santa Cruz, and San Roman as well as nearby Douglas to the north are among the most flood prone in Belize.

Once again, the the Albion Island are aflood - and hardest hit is San Antonio village:

Ramon Cervantez, Area Rep - OW North
"Well, the water continues rising."

"So here in San Antonio is where they are most affected. Where homes and families are being most affected."

NEMO has been mobilized to move residents back and forth, but these trucks can no longer cross the San Antonio bridge:

Ramon Cervantez, Area Rep - OW North
"Up to yesterday, the BDF trucks could pass, you know, easily from the other side to here to San Antonio village. But this morning it was too high. And, and so the water keeps rising. Thanks to them to NEMO and the BDF, they, they deployed a lanchon, a skiff, so as to help the people cross."

"Then, the busses are waiting on the other side and they take the people to work. So that has been working."

Daniel Mendez - Director NEMO
"So we have gone from the the BDF driving across to providing boat services. And so we will continue to do this as long as necessary in this village and any other village that is being affected."

A full contingent of Ministers and area reps, led by the Prime Minister visited the area yesterday assess the floods.

Andre Perez, NEMO Minister
"We saw the need immediately that we needed to come and take a look. I'm accompanied as well, not only by the NEC, but the entire team from NEMO department. They have a crew right now at in Douglas doing some reconnaissance."

The Prime Minister was sober about the reality of this well known flood zone:

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well certainly your heart goes out to the people that are affected but every year this happens. And I think that, our people have to, to be more realistic. Climate change is upon us. We're having more rain and, stronger rains. So these floodings are not going to stop. So I think that there are a number of things that I think that as a government, we need to take a hard look for the long term. For instance, right now, I was talking to the representative about the river banks. That probably we need to declare all of the river banks, as a reserve, So that we could prevent people from building too close to the river. When it's not raining, it's a beautiful land you want to live by the river, but look, look at what's happening. And this is going to happen every year, and it's going to get worse. Unfortunately, we're told that this week, this weekend, we expect another 2 to 3in of rain in the entire country."

"So, this is not going to stop."

Andre Perez, NEMO Minister
"We need to build resilience. How can we do this? This is not going to change. Although it's an extraordinary year, we will not be surprised if this is occurring because it's happening more often. So we have to prepare for those plans. We have to plan now for preventive measures. What we can do to do it better to to whenever it comes next year, what can we do?"

And, in the present - while the climate reality may be changing but the direction is the same:

Ramon Cervantez, Area Rep - OW North
"The situation is that the water keeps rising. We don't know to what limit, but I have seen it, you know, I think when it was Mitch that came and I think Shantell, I've seen this water very, very, very high, you know, even above us where we are standing right now."

Daniel Mendez - Director NEMO
"My advice to them is, if you see the river starting to rise, don't wait, start to try to make your own arrangements, secure your homes, start to make your plans to to find somewhere to to shelter for that time. We expect it to, to continue. We've seen it. We've seen it and it may it may continue in the next few days. So be prepared. And. Sure, like, like I keep saying across every media, we are still in the hurricane season. There's still a lot of rain. And we don't we don't need a hurricane to to see the impacts as we're seeing right now."