WATER LEVELS CONTINUE TO RISE IN SOME PARTS OF THE BELIZE DISTRICT

October 29, 2008

Residents in the Belize, Orange Walk and Corozal Districts are keeping an eye on rivers in their area. Love News spoke with Hydrologist Rudolph Williams who gave us the latest water level report.

Rudolph Williams; Chief Hydrologist, National Met Service

“Looking at the Belize River, we note that both the Macal and Mopan Rivers have fallen and we expect that the Macal should be below the low level bridge by tomorrow. Along in the Grace Bank area, the Hector Creek continues to flow over the Northern Highway into the Belize River and the Crooked Tree Lagoon continues to rise. The lower valley part of it we have reports of steady water levels near Saint Paul’s, Willows Bank and Isabella; however on the Spanish Creek the Rancho and Lemonal are experiencing a slow fall. Near Maypen and Double Run the water level is increasing slowly and also near Boom it continues to increase slowly. This gives us an indication that the peak is somewhere around Boom or just below Boom, this translates to increasing water levels, just down stream of the Boom area where we see that Lord’s Bank, the Phillip Goldson Airport and the Haulover Bridge area are experiencing increasing water levels. Near the Belize City are we have reports of increasing water levels in the Belama etension area and some reports on the south side in the Port Loyola area. The Sunset and Mile 8 Communities of the Western Highway is between the Sibun River and Freetown and the flood stage is now falling but they will continue to see increasing water levels in these areas as flood waves on these rivers make their way to the sea. They are experiencing inter-basin water transfers along the coast. These areas and Belize City can expect that there will be increasing water levels when we are experiencing high tides. In the Northern part of the country, the Blue Creek of the Rio Hondo continues to rise. At Douglas the water continues to rise but still remains below the Keith stage. This wave that is panning out near Blue Creek is expected to start to affect the leading edge of the Albion Island today and suppose to arrive at Douglas on Saturday. We are expecting that by Wednesday next week we will see some of the effects of this near the Santa Elena Border. On the New River the Tower Hill is steady at this time and at Caledonia point on the New River has fallen some what and it appears that a flood wave had occurred on Caledonia. However, if Tower Hill remains steady then we can expect a secondary peak will arrive at Caledonia but that could occur in about a week’s time. In the southern part of the country most of the rivers are at flood stage or above normal and are falling at this time.”

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