Belize braces for Hurricane Iris’ fury

Associated Press

BELIZE CITY, Belize — Thousands of residents and tourists fled low-lying coastal regions of Belize on Monday as Hurricane Iris, the year’s most powerful Atlantic storm, drove toward the coast with 140 mph winds.

"We are expecting it to hit very hard," said Arreini Palacio, a government spokeswoman. "We are in a state of emergency."

Iris was about 75 miles east-southeast of Belize City on Monday afternoon and was moving westward at about 22 mph, putting it on course to blast into southern Belize early today.

Palacio said soldiers were going door to door to evacuate people in this low-lying, seaside city of 65,000 people. The nation’s capital was moved inland to Belmopan after Hurricane Hattie destroyed much of Belize City in 1961.

While the evacuation was optional in Belize City, officials said it was mandatory for some coastal towns farther south and for offshore cayes popular with tourists.

"This is an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane," said Richard Knabb, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. "This is going to cause extensive damage wherever it makes landfall."

Many along the Belize coast were starting to take notice.

George Bevier, co-owner of the beachfront Rum Point Inn, near Placencia, 70 miles south of Belize City, said he, eight guests and four employees had planned to wait out the hurricane but decided to leave Monday afternoon as Iris changed course and appeared headed straight for Placencia.

"We’ve been down here 30 years and we’ve experienced some serious hurricanes," Bevier said. "But this is a category 4 and that could be big trouble. Even 10-foot waves could wipe out this whole peninsula."

Nearly every window in town was boarded up, and the only road out was clogged with traffic.

In Punta Gorda, 40 miles south of Placencia, William Schmidt, 55, owner of the Nature’s Way Guest House, said people were doing what they could to prepare for the storm.

"The stores are jammed. People are stocking up and preparing, but if this comes too fast they will have to stay where they are."

"We’d like to evacuate but we don’t know where to go," Schmidt said.