Hurricane Keith weakens but still pounds Belize
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from October 2000.
Brought to you by
A spokesman for Belize's National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) said there were no reports of injuries or deaths but large parts of the country were without power or telephone service and residents on the coast were urged to move inland. "We're still weathering the storm," the spokesman said. "It is raining all over the country." Belize is a former British colony of about 250,000 residents on Central America's Caribbean coast between Guatemala and Mexico.
Formerly British Honduras, Belize's history has been scarred by hurricanes, including a devastating storm in 1961 that forced the country to move its capital inland from Belize City to Belmopan.
The US National Hurricane Centre said by Monday the nearly stationary Keith had top winds near 100 mph. As Keith drifted north or northwest it could be downgraded to a tropical storm later in the day, the center said.
Heavy rains also inundated parts of the Yucatan peninsula, eastern Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua. Forecasters warned of rainfall accumulations of between 15 and 20 inches along Keith's path. Forecasters also received reports that winds had sucked water out of the Bay of Chetumal, on Belize's northern border with Mexico's state of Quintana Roo, to the point where people could walk across it. The latest information tracked the center of Keith to near latitude 17.7 north and longiwarning remained in effect for the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula and Belize from Cabo Catoche south to Monkey River Town.
Forecasters reported that storm surge flooding of between 9 and 12 feet above normal tide levels and battering waves likely have occurred over parts of the hurricane warning area.
