Hurricane Iris headed for Belize

BELIZE CITY, Belize (AP) - Thousands of residents and tourists fled low-lying coastal parts of Belize on Monday as Hurricane Iris, the year's most powerful Atlantic storm, drove toward the coast with 140 mph winds.

``We are expecting it to hit very hard,'' said government spokeswoman Arreini Palacio. ``We are in a state of emergency.''

Iris was about 165 miles east-southeast of Belize City Monday afternoon and was moving westward at about 21 mph.

Palacio said soldiers were going door to door to evacuate people in this low-lying, seaside city of 65,000 people. The nation's capital was moved inland to Belmopan after Hurricane Hattie destroyed much of Belize City in 1961.

While the evacuation was optional in Belize City, officials said it was mandatory for some coastal towns farther south and for offshore cayes popular with tourists.

``This is an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane,'' said Richard Knabb, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. ``This is going to cause extensive damage wherever it makes landfall.''

``The village is full of people getting their families and getting out, getting to higher ground very, very quickly,'' said Karen Boudreaux, general manager of the Rum Point Inn near Placencia, about 70 miles south of Belize City.

She said nearly every window in town was boarded up and the only road out was clogged with traffic.

Boudreaux said she and her guests would not join the exodus, though officials in the capital said evacuation was mandatory.

``There's no way out of here except driving north into it,'' Boudreaux said. ``We are going to stay here and hope for the best. When the storm comes, we will go to the highest point we can on our property.''

In Punta Gorda, 40 miles farther south, ``there isn't any kind of panic yet,'' said William Schmidt, 55, owner of the Nature's Way Guest House. However, he said stores were crowded as people stocked up on staples.

``We'd like to evacuate, but we don't know where to go,'' said Schmidt, who had been evacuated in 1999 for Hurricane Mitch. ``The school where we went in Mitch shakes with a big clap of thunder and is not very safe.''

The Hurricane Center warned that Iris could temporarily raise the seas by 13 to 18 feet above normal, causing coastal flooding. Rainfall of five to eight inches could cause flash floods and mudslides inland.

Neighboring Honduras went on a state of alert, said Juan Bendeck, the emergency commissioner there. Schools were closed and flights canceled in the Bay Islands, offshore, and fishermen on the coast sought safe haven.

Local officials said thousands of people had left low-lying areas for higher ground.

Civil defense authorities ordered emergency workers to be on alert in Guatemala, where Iris was expected to dump heavy rains in the north. A slight southward twitch in the storm's path could bring it to shore near Guatemala's Puerto Barrios.

Iris gained force after brushing past Jamaica on Sunday with 85 mph winds that toppled some trees, tore off roofs and injured at least one person.

Iris killed a mother and her two young daughters in the Dominican Republic on Saturday, when a retaining wall collapsed onto their house.

Further east in the Caribbean, Tropical Storm Jerry was following in the path of Iris with winds of about 50 mph. Forecasters said it was expected to become a hurricane, with sustained winds of 74 mph or greater.

Located about 285 miles southeast of Puerto Rico, it was moving west-northwest at about 16 mph.

``It's quite a nice day other than the fact that it looks very gray out to sea,'' she said. ``It looks like very bad weather is coming our way.''

20 Feared Dead in Boat Capsizing

20 Feared Dead in Boat Capsizing

The Associated Press
Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2001; 11:30 a.m. EDT

BELIZE CITY, Belize –– A live-aboard dive boat capsized as Hurricane Iris roared into Belize, and the owners said Tuesday that as many as 20 people were feared dead.

Twenty-eight people, most of them tourists from Virginia, were aboard the MV Wave Dancer as Iris hit southern Belize with 140-mph winds Monday night, said Patricia Rose, spokeswoman for Peter Rose Diving in Miami.

She said eight survivors had been accounted for Tuesday morning. The boat had been chartered by the Richmond Dive Club of Richmond, Va.

"A strong storm surge lifted the boat in the air, snapping the line and capsizing it. The boat may have hit a wall or the dock. It was secured," she said.

The 120-foot boat had been tied to a dock in a mangrove along with other dive boats and commercial boats near Big Creek, close to where the storm came ashore, some 80 miles south-southwest of Belize City.

"Belize City was evacuated so we could not put the guests in a hotel. We were forced to keep them on the boat," she said.

The boat capsized in approximately 12 feet of water. It did not sink, but turned on its side.

"We're hoping for survivors but I don't know that it's likely," she said.

Local radio stations reported that Iris flattened several coastal towns as it hit Monday night, destroying hundreds of houses. It was not immediately clear if there were other deaths.

The hurricane raised seas by 13 to 18 feet above normal, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, and forecasters predicted rainfall totals of five eight inches.

The storm crossed most of the Central American isthmus overnight. By morning, Iris had weakened to tropical depression centered about 45 miles southeast of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico.

The British Army, which has 250 soldiers in Belize at a training center, pledged to help in rescue operations.

"Reports we have received suggest that parts of the country where it hit hardest have taken a very bad battering," said Major John Knopp, second-in-command of the British Army Training Support Unit in Ladyville, 12 miles north of Belize City.

In Placencia, a fishing village and resort town of several hundred people where many homes are small wooden structures on stilts, numerous houses were lost, said Andrea Villanueva.

"Our own roof went and most of the houses went down," Villanueva told local LOVE-FM radio as the hurricane's eye passed over late Monday. "But we're experiencing a calm right now."

The radio announcer told Villanueva to stay inside, reminding him the eye of the hurricane is passing over and winds would come quickly.

North of the storm, intermittent heavy rains and winds blew through Belize City, a low-lying, seaside city of 65,000 people where soldiers went door to door to evacuate people from their homes.

The streets, some of which had flooded, were deserted late Monday and homes and businesses alike were boarded up. The nation's capital was moved inland to Belmopan after Hurricane Hattie destroyed much of Belize City in 1961.

Civil defense authorities in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras implemented states of alert in anticipation of heavy rains from Iris, and thousands of people left low-lying areas for higher ground.

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Damage Assessment
Monkey River	Major damage in Monkey River. Most houses destroyed. Only buildings left standing are the Community Center and the Health Center.
Silver Creek	98% of houses Destroyed. Only church building and new school remain standing.
Hopkins village	Two Restaurants Fallen into the sea: Swinging Armadillo and Over the Waves. High tension wires down on the Southern Highway between Hopkins Village and Silk Grass.
Independence	Many houses on the ground, roof of Hotel Hello blew off, Michael Ashcroft Stadium destroyed.
Seine Bight	Many Houses on the ground including the church and school buildings
Punta Gorda	Some houses lost their roofs.
Rural Toledo	Thatch Houses destroyed. 8,000 people left homeless.
San Antonio, Toledo	20 homes destroyed.
Bella Vista, Toledo	Many houses destroyed
Big Falls	95% of houses destroyed.
Placencia	100% of properties have been damaged. Very few houses left standing. 95% of businesses are down: Conchie's Villa's, Julia's Guest House, Bella Beach Restaurant, Cozy Corner, Ranguana Lodge, The Thatch Cafe, Sea Horse Dive Shop, J-Bird's Bar, Dockside Bar, Temptations Bar, Sonny's Resort, and more.

Category 4 hurricane Iris made landfall sometime around 7:30 p.m. Monday, October 8, 2001. It moved quickly through the area of Monkey River, Big Creek, Independence and Placencia and by 9:30 p.m. it had already done its damage and was heading west towards Guatemala. Reports from Placencia indicate that many houses and about 95% of business places have been destroyed. One boat Wave Dancer in the Big Creek area reportedly overturned during the storm. There were 28 people onboard most of whom were tourists. At least eight have survived. Extensive damage to the banana, rice and shrimp farming industry is also expected but is yet to be assessed.

News Flash

All classes have been canceled for Tuesday, October 9, 2001
11 bodies recovered from overturned Wave Dancer in Big Creek port, 11 still missing
All Clear has been declared for the entire country of Belize with a caution for the south Stann Creek and Toledo districts.
Philip S.W. International Airport as well as the Municipal Airstrip are open and operating.
8,000 people remain homeless in rural Toledo.

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Belize Residents Flee Hurricane Iris

Wish you were here.