Belize braced for Hurricane Richard

Hurricane Richard slammed into Belize’s Caribbean coast just south of its largest city, as authorities evacuated tourists from outlying islands and an estimated 10,000 people took refuge at shelters in the tiny Central American nation.

The US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said Richard’s top winds were 90mph - making it a Category One hurricane – when it made landfall about 20 miles south-south-west of Belize City, whose neighbourhoods are full of wooden, tin-roof homes that are very vulnerable to winds.

“The winds are very strong ... it’s getting stronger,” said Fanny Llanos, a clerk at the Lazy Iguana bed and Breakfast on Caye Caulker, a low-lying island known for its coral reefs and crystal-clear waters, located just offshore from Belize City.

Ms Llanos said that palm trees were bending over in the wind and it had become very noisy.

“All the windows are boarded, and this is a strong house so we will be here,” she said, “but we are still afraid.”

Richard was moving west-north-west at about 10mph, and hurricane-force winds extended up to 15 miles from its centre.

Belize City was devastated by Hurricane Hattie in 1961, prompting officials to move the capital inland to Belmopan.

But Belize City is still the nation’s largest population centre, with about 100,000 inhabitants – a third of the country’s population.

Official estimated that about 10,000 people took refuge at storm shelters in schools and churches located farther inland, including many in the capital, Belmopan.

Tourists had already been evacuated from Caye Caulker and nearby Ambergris Caye, but some local residents decided to ride out the storm.

Rafael Marin, the caretaker at the Anchorage Resort hotel, said strong gusts of wind were already hitting the island and its normally calm waters were being whipped into three-foot waves lapping at the island’s docks.

“We already boarded up everything, and we already got everything – office equipment and everything – stored in a safe place,” Mr Marin said. “We got all the tourists out, and get the whole place secured down.”