'I begged US hurricane victims to leave boat' - mayor

The mayor of a hurricane-hit town in Belize where at least 19 people died aboard a dive boat said he offered the American visitors shelter on land three times.

A senior government official called the decision to not go ashore regrettable, but probably not a criminal affair.

Hurricane Iris attacked with 140mph winds on Monday, slashing a path of devastation through the Belizean jungle and capsizing the MV Wave Dancer.

Belize officials said 19 bodies had been recovered - including 17 members of a diving club in Richmond, Virginia, and that three people were listed as missing.

Independence Village Chairman Tony Zabaneh said that as the hurricane neared, he spoke to the captain of a second boat chartered by the dive club, the Belize Aggressor III, and repeatedly urged the group to come to land.

‘‘I made it clear to the captain to please get the people off the boat, that the storm was definitely going to hit,’’ Zabaneh said.

‘‘I did the best I could. I made three trips down there. We were accommodating anybody.’’

Zabaneh, who also owns a fishing boat and a banana company, said that about 400 people took shelter in his buildings during the hurricane. None was reported injured.

Zabaneh said he did not speak with the captain of the Wave Dancer itself, though as a shareholder of the port operation, he had helped tie the boat down alongside the Aggressor when it arrived a few hours before the storm hit.

‘‘They were in a party mood,’’ Zabaneh said of the boat’s passengers.

‘‘I think they were happy and they didn’t realize what a hurricane can do. But I believe that if the other boat (the Aggressor) had heeded the warning, they would have done likewise.’’

Zabaneh said he warned the people on the boats that the storm would be arriving between 7 and 9pm ‘‘and if they needed anything, they could call me’’.

‘‘I didn’t hear anything from them again until it had busted away and turned over and they were calling for help,’’ he said.

A spokeswoman for the owner of the Wave Dancer, Patricia Rose, said her company knew nothing about the offer to stay on land.

The hurricane’s storm surge of 13 to 18 feet, along with a ferocious wind and high waves, snapped the Wave Dancer’s lines and toppled it, officials said.

Belize’s tourism minister, Mark Espat, said the captain of the Agressor ‘‘indicated that both boats were properly tied up’’.

Espat called the decision to stay aboard ‘‘a judgment call by a trained boat captain’’.

‘‘I think what you have was a case where it was certainly difficult to predict the force of the Iris winds and the result was tragic,’’ said Espat, whose agency has joined police in investigating the tourism-related incident.

‘‘The decision to stay on the boat has turned out to be the wrong one, but I’m not convinced anyone is criminally responsible.’’

The dive boats apparently had headed to the relatively protected Big Creek after earlier forecasts aimed the hurricane at Belize City, 80 miles north. Troops had started to evacuate that city earlier in the day, but as the storm veered slightly south, many stayed.

As it turned out, the Belize City hotel in front of the base for both boats was untouched by the storm, and was full of guests throughout Monday night.

Zabaneh said the captain of the Aggressor had been trying to find hotel rooms in the capital, Belmopan, but that roads in from the coast were packed with traffic.

Government spokesman Vaughan Gill said the storm left about 13,000 people homeless, but the only deaths were those aboard the Wave Dancer.

Iris caused about £165m in damage in the nation of 250,000 people, Gill said, adding, ‘‘We’re looking at thousands of people out of work.’’

In neighbouring Guatemala, the hurricane ripped the roofs off of more than 1,000 houses and 26 schools and completely destroyed 708 houses in the northern Peten region. The hurricane’s winds also wiped out essential corn and bean crops.