Tropical Storm Arthur

Belize Red Cross Headquarters. To store mounting in-kind donations, a temporary storage unit is brough in.

Tropical Storm Arthur formed on Saturday May 31^st, 2008 and made landfall in Northern Belize on the Yucatan Peninsula before becoming the first storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. The rains from tropical storm Arthur compounded the effects of tropical storm Alma which had developed in the Eastern Pacific on May 27^th.

Heavy rains throughout Belize caused rivers across the country to overflow. Together, storms Alma and Arthur brought approximately 15 inches of rain over 36 hours across Belize causing flash flooding in low lying areas.

Smile!

Due to the difficulty in accessing the affected communities, the Belize Red Cross has yet not been able to conduct detailed assessments in all affected areas. Information from existing assessment reports from various agencies are conflicting with number of affected population ranging from 5,000 to as much as 13,000.

As a result of the storm, I was asked at 8pm Monday 2 June 2008  to deploy to Belize to support the Belize Red Cross.  Within 1 hour myself and Lorena (Logistics RIT from PADRU) had flights booked and headed to the airport at 3am that morning to arrive in Belize by 10am on Tueday. 

Over the past several days, Lorena and I have worked with the Belizean Red Cross to draft a Plan of Action targeting 500 families (2500 individuals) affected by the floods.

With luck, the rains will hold off for the next several weeks, alowing for the country to rebuild critical infrastructure that was lost due to TS Arthur.