Richard "the Belizean Hearted"

Thought I would share a little about Hurricane Richard that came through Belize last Sunday. The Peace Corps "consolidated" us, as they call it, ion Sunday morning. We weren't evacuated out of the country, but as in the past hurricanes and tropical storms, we come to a hotel in Belmopan that is close to the Peace Corps office. We were put on alert on Friday and called in on Sunday morning because the busses stopped running Sunday afternoon.

It's always great to see our fellow Peace Corps volunteers, but the Garden City Hotel sure isn't the Hyatt, in fact it's not even a Motel 6! So, in addition to the main reason we are there (the impending hurricane) we weren't really excited about spending the next few days in "lock down." Luckly, there's a Chinese Bar around the corner that has good food and beer - and they didn't close until Sunday night! So, I got some carry out and went to my room to watch Sunday Night Football until the electricity went off.

The storm hit land in Belize City, but Belmopan ended up getting more damage because the storm gained strength as it came across the flat land toward Belmopan. We were initially on the top floor of the hotel but the ceiling started moving about 12 inches up and down as the winds came in, so we were moved to the bottom floor where it was much safer. When we emerged the next morning, we found the roof on Jolines, one of our favorite restaurants right next door to the Hotel, was completely ripped off and lots of trees were snapped off from the winds all over the city.

We had to stay in Belmopan on Monday, though it was a beautiful sunny day with blue skies and you wouldn't even think that it was so terrible just eight hours earlier. However, there were so many trees and electric poles down on the road to Belize City and we had no electricity, so the busses couldn't get through the road until Tuesday.

When I got home, I had some water in the house that had come in under the door, but a little mopping and fans to dry the feet of the furniture and everything was back to normal, though Maya was a little tramatized. She ran out as I was leaving on Sunday morning and spent the night in the storm outside! She's been staying pretty close to home all week! So now I have "international" hurricane experience to add to my Florida hurricane adventures.