Was the upgraded Coastal Road ready for the deluge?

The driver of a truck was washed off the Coastal Highway on Monday as that stretch of road came under fast-moving floodwaters. Thanks to Good Samaritans, the man was pulled from the raging waters to safety. While that amazing rescue was a story of Belizean ingenuity and compassion, there were other stories of people getting stuck out there too. Belize Peace Movement Leader Wil Maheia, who helped other motorists who had been stuck, told Love News that yesterday’s floods exposed the need for improved road infrastructure, including culverts. 

Will Maheia, Conservationist: “I was driving up to the city and actually it was yesterday and I decided to use the Coastal Highway and came across the flooded areas and when I came across the flooded areas as you know I am an environmental guy, conservationist, into the environment so I decided to pay keen attention to what was going on and from my observation and I will state for the record I’m not an engineer but what the road looked like at the time was it looked like almost like a damn with little escape routes and as you can see from the videos that I had forwarded to you that the culverts was so small that the water had trouble getting through the culverts which backed up and then went across the road and in my own opinion I think if the culverts were bigger the water would have flowed faster. Again I know that yes there was a storm out but if you look at the amount of rainfall that fell I don’t think that it was that huge amount of rainfall, it was within the normal limits so that was like my thing and then after that I saw where the road is being heavily used now and a lot of vehicles are going and luckily fortunate for me I have one of those Mahindra pickups with a cable so I was able to assist some people in pulling them across the road.”