Tourists hunker down as Earl pounds Belize City
BNC
2016-08-04
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Tourists caught in the middle of Tropical storm Earl in Belize City on Thursday (August 4) had no choice but to wait it out as the storm whipped the Central American nation with wind and heavy rain.
Earl weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm overnight, moving into Guatemala toward southeastern Mexico after hundreds of people took shelter overnight.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said at 1200 GMT that Earl had maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour (105 km per hour) as it churned about 90 miles (145 km) west of Belize City.
Philip Gray was on holiday with his church group from Birmingham, Alabama when the storm hit.
"Everything was done very well at the hotel. They really took care of us as much as they could. We all had confidence that the hotel would weather the storm. We did have a little water come in the rooms. A lot of water in the lobby here this morning. We see a lot of damage around. And we really fear for the people of the city that were in the little houses. We know that that kind of wind - but about 11:30 last night until 12:30 this morning is when the worst seemed to really pass through. The wind was very very strong. We saw the air conditioners on the roof coming apart, blowing across and projectiles from that, so, very dangerous," Gray said.
Also visiting from the United States was, Rachelle Thomas, who with her husband from New York, stopped short of calling the storm terrifying.
"It was very scary. It was very scary. It was very windy. A lot of rain came into our room. We were actually in room 235 and we had to come down to the lobby once we lost power. And the glass around us started breaking. So we decided to come downstairs," she said.
Late Wednesday, over 1,000 people were in shelters in Belize City, emergency management officials said. Dozens of people were also evacuated in Honduras on Wednesday, the government said.
As it moves west, Earl is expected to weaken to a tropical depression later Thursday or by Friday morning, the NHC said.
Mexican national oil company Pemex said Wednesday night it was monitoring Earl but had not evacuated workers at oil platforms that are concentrated in the southern Gulf of Mexico.
Earl, the fifth named storm of the 2016 season, was expected to bring 8 to 12 inches (20-30 cm) of rain in parts of Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula through Friday morning, the Miami-based NHC said in a statement.
Earl weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm overnight, moving into Guatemala toward southeastern Mexico after hundreds of people took shelter overnight.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said at 1200 GMT that Earl had maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour (105 km per hour) as it churned about 90 miles (145 km) west of Belize City.
Philip Gray was on holiday with his church group from Birmingham, Alabama when the storm hit.
"Everything was done very well at the hotel. They really took care of us as much as they could. We all had confidence that the hotel would weather the storm. We did have a little water come in the rooms. A lot of water in the lobby here this morning. We see a lot of damage around. And we really fear for the people of the city that were in the little houses. We know that that kind of wind - but about 11:30 last night until 12:30 this morning is when the worst seemed to really pass through. The wind was very very strong. We saw the air conditioners on the roof coming apart, blowing across and projectiles from that, so, very dangerous," Gray said.
Also visiting from the United States was, Rachelle Thomas, who with her husband from New York, stopped short of calling the storm terrifying.
"It was very scary. It was very scary. It was very windy. A lot of rain came into our room. We were actually in room 235 and we had to come down to the lobby once we lost power. And the glass around us started breaking. So we decided to come downstairs," she said.
Late Wednesday, over 1,000 people were in shelters in Belize City, emergency management officials said. Dozens of people were also evacuated in Honduras on Wednesday, the government said.
As it moves west, Earl is expected to weaken to a tropical depression later Thursday or by Friday morning, the NHC said.
Mexican national oil company Pemex said Wednesday night it was monitoring Earl but had not evacuated workers at oil platforms that are concentrated in the southern Gulf of Mexico.
Earl, the fifth named storm of the 2016 season, was expected to bring 8 to 12 inches (20-30 cm) of rain in parts of Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula through Friday morning, the Miami-based NHC said in a statement.
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