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Tonight, Belmopan residents, engineers, and city planners are still trying to figure out what happened in Belmopan on Saturday. The Capital City saw record flooding in various areas, but what triggered it?
Approximately 150 households were affected and waves rolled through the peripheral communities of Las Flores, Salvapan, and San Martin.
And tonight residents of greater Belmopan are asking how this could have happened in the shining city on the hill, the one so famous for its drains.
Jaleeza Roberts has this story from the capital:
This image shows 50 of 150 damage reports being assessed in the City of Belmopan, scattered in various areas but primarily in San Martin, Salvapan and Las Flores.
These residents are left to clean up after the waters receded. Mayor Pablo Cawich says the hardest-hit communities were those surrounding the Ten Cents Creek.
The flooding has reignited concerns among residents over whether Belmopan's drainage infrastructure can handle increasingly intense rainfall.
Cawich says this weekend's downpour, which dumped 8 to 10 inches on the Garden City in a few hours was anything but ordinary.
Pablo Cawich, Mayor of Belmopan "This weekend's occurrence was a very unique circumstance. The Belmopan area received a lot of historic levels of water, specifically the Belmopan area, starting from Armenia to Belmopan. We have handled a lot of severe rainy storms in the past. I think the last one like this weekend was around the time of Mitch in 1998. Last year, February, we had a slightly bad rainy season and we didn't reach these levels of flooding. We have improved the drainage system since then, but as I've tried to explain to some of the residents, the problem was not our drainage system. The problem was that the Belize River was already flooded. That is where all of our drainage systems dump into. The corridor by the highway that was flooded out is the area where water usually moves over from Belmopan over to the Belize River."
For one Salvapan resident, watching her belongings get ruined was a harsh wake-up call for the necessity of disaster planning in an era of climate extremes.
Lecla Chun, Homeowner "I have only two mattress but the rest are damaged, everything got wet."
Jaleeza Roberts: "Have you experienced something like this before in Belmopan?"
Lecla Chun: "No ma'am I never experienced this, this is the first time."
"I never faced this in my life yet."
"Maybe it can happen again because the rain just started and then we have to just prepare now."
The flooding also exposed another vulnerability: access to the capital. With sections of the George Price Highway under water, motorists were forced to use alternate routes through the J&W area and Cotton Tree, raising questions about whether Belmopan needs additional emergency access roads:
Jaleeza Roberts: "Are you all looking into potentially trying to develop another road to get in Belmopan? Let's say in the event there was an emergency that someone had to get from Belmopan to Belize City, what would have happened in that instance?"
Pablo Cawich: "Yes, we are looking at new access routes, but along with looking at new access routes, we also have to many times consider security. Our expansion assessment with those new entries is in collaboration with the police as well, because security is one of the main things that people usually bring up when they open new roads. They give the crooks or criminals new roads so that they can hide from the police. So we have to ensure that we develop properly. There are presently two roads in the J&W area that connect to the highway, and that's the road that was being utilized during this present flood."
Despite the flooding, emergency shelters saw little use. A temporary shelter was opened in Belmopan on Saturday, but no residents checked in. The only shelter that accommodated evacuees was in nearby Armenia, and it has since closed. Jaleeza Roberts,
And while the City Council is preparing for contingencies - was anyone truly prepared for the volume of rainfall that poured down on Belmopan?
And was there sufficient public information before it happened?
The National Met Service sounded the alarm Friday afternoon, issuing its first alert on an incoming tropical wave. Central areas of the country were placed under an immediate excessive rainfall warning, with forecasters predicting downpours of two to four inches.
But what actually fell was more than double that, and today the Chief Met shared with us what he categorized as "historic" coming in close to previous rainfall record dating back to 2002:
Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist "So yes over the weekend we had a tropical wave that across the country on Saturday. That system came along with a very strong low level jet as we refer to it, strong winds, in the atmosphere and there was also upper level support for the system to produce significant rainfall, especially over the Belmopan area the Cayo District In terms of numbers, we recorded in a matter of about 12 hours, Belmopan got 273.4mm, which is 10.8 inches of rainfall in just about 12 hours from about midnight until about midday. To put that in perspective, the average rainfall for Belmopan is about 245mm for the month of July, which is 9.7 inches So the capital city recorded, more than its monthly average in just 12 hours. Historically this is not the highest that the city has seen on June 19th, 2002. We recorded 334mm of rainfall, which is 13.1inches so even though it's a significant amount of rain, it didn't break, historical record overall for Belmopan. Other notable areas, stations La Gracia which is just few miles to the northwest of Belmopan got 8.5 inches and Hershey got 8.4 inches so in that general vicinity we saw significant amounts of rainfall in a very short time period from this system."
So why couldn't they predict the level of rainfall with greater accuracy?
According to Gordon, predictive models frequently miss rapid-onset, extreme weather events, leaving the country vulnerable to sudden flooding. And that's critical information because another tropical wave is approaching in the next couple day:
Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist "The system has moved away the tropical wave has moved away we got improvement in weather conditions yesterday Sunday and up to this morning however there is another tropical wave approaching which will cross the country by tomorrow or later tomorrow night. That system is already producing some moisture over the area, and we have seen some rainfall returning, especially over the southern two thirds of the country this morning into this afternoon and we expect those to continue and increase tonight into tomorrow, with some more showers and thunderstorms expected. Module prediction are going for about 2 to 3 inches maximum. We've got to be very careful. The modules are not picking up these extreme rainfall so that ten over ten inches of rainfall that Belmopan saw was not even registered in any module that we saw. They are not picking up those extremes so it is always important for residents to know that when we give you a forecast the module is just a guidance and we can sometimes get much more than those modules are saying."
And Saturday's over eight inches of rainfall had a consequential effect on the highway infrastructure heading into Belmopan.
The George Price Highway at Mile 45 was closed for five and a half hours - from late morning to mid afternoon - after Mount Pleasant Creek overflowed, sending high, fast-moving currents across the pavement. The closure effectively stranded commuters traveling westbound to Belmopan or eastbound to the City.
Today, speaking via Zoom, the MIDH Chief Engineer told us that it was a hard decision but a necessary one:
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer "It was really difficult decision for us to make. I know when I discussed it with the minister, he was not happy with the decision because it's a major highway, as you're mentioning. However, in an effort to land an abundance of safety, we had to ensure that the motorists using the highways are safe. And from what I saw on the site, that water was moving at a high velocity across the highway, that we could not take the chance to allow vehicles to pass through."
"Two major sections were affected on our highways. One was the Mount Pleasant area, located between mile 45 and to 46 on the George Prince Highway. And also, we had water crossing the highway between mile 43 and 44 near Benny's."
"The most significant one was the Mount Pleasant area where we had over two feet of water crossing the highway. That water basically originated from the west of Belmopan, coming from J&W.."
"As you may know, we're doing construction works along the George Price Highway at this point in time. And exactly where the water overtopped the highway is where we're supposed to build a new bridge. So we had the diversion in place at that location. It was expected that we were going to cut that road this week because we were going to shift traffic over to the diversion."
"But now we have to reach re-strag because that has been damaged."
"We still have to proceed with the construction of that new bridge. That new bridge structure is really, really important to the George PRICE Highway project, because this is the second time that that flood event has occurred at Mount Pleasant. The last time it was in June 2020. And so it has repeated itself six years later at an even higher intensity. And so we expect that we will try and start this bridge very soon, maybe within another couple of weeks. It will take us at least one year to finish that bridge STRCUTURE. And so we have to have the diversion in place to allow traffic to continuously flow along the George PRICE Highway. But we also want to look at that back road in the event we have a repeated, occurrence of this rainfall, that we will also have an alternate road for vehicular traffic to pass through BELMOPAN."
Gordon then turned us over to Chief Hydrologist Hendy who explained how the high levels of rainfall led to flooding in our main river systems.
Tennille Hendy, Chief Hydrologist "So what we saw was the flooding was caused primarily by rainfall totals due to excessive volumes and it resulted in substantial run off into these systems and the higher impacted systems centrally where the rainfall was concentrated is the Belize river valley system, at more tomorrow And now we're seeing that downstream at the Double Run station, which is our own Sand hill, in the lower Belize River is now experiencing bank full, flood stages. The Sibun river continues to,exceed bank full and continues to increase on a linear direction."
While they will develop an alternate route into and out of the capital, the fact is that while the 25-year flood was certainly a factor for Saturday's event, the changing landscape is another.
Moody discussed deforestation:
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer "Most of the rainfall was just focused over the entire district. Most notably in the Belmopan area. And so the surrounding villages of Cayo South was affected. We believe that those areas were affected because of deforestation happening in the area. There's a lot of that happening in this area honestly, and it is really affecting the runoff and the flow going to our drainages, and the drainage structures that we have, that they're really overcapacity. That they don't have sufficient capacity to deal with these flows."
"And the idea is that those drainage in Belmopan are large. However, because of the land clearing that that is happening beyond Belmopan It's pushing a massive amount of water, through those channels, that those channels even have over-topped. So Belmopan was known to be having large capacity drains, but now, those are even considered small because of the overcapacity and the amount of runoff that is filling this drains in a, in quite a short period of time."
And tonight there is a flood alert for the Belize River Valley which can expect floodwaters to reach their communities within the next 2-3 days.
Chief Hydrologist Tennille Hendy told us about the affected watersheds:
Tennille Hendy, Chief Hydrologist "We do have several watersheds that were severely, impacted by the excessive rainfall events. Primarily the Belize River basin, which comprises the Belmopan city outskirts, what we call belmopan city or greater Belmopan city area as well as some stations downstream. so for the station within the Cayo district that received flood levels is the more tomorrow station which peaked above 11 meters of the 12th of July and this was a sharp increase from about 1.1, 1.8 meters to 7.55 meters with on the 12th, the 13th it crested on the 12th beyond 11 meters because we don't have gages beyond that 11 meters so it exceed the historical water levels in that section. The Iguana creek also experienced rapid rise in addition we have the sibun river basin that also had severe flood levels where the water levels exceeded 4, 3.5 meters at the sib and this was a linear increase in the water levels. And lastly we have the city river basin which has experienced the second highest increase the river levels rose from about 1.5 meters on July tenth to 7.7 meters by 6:00Am the 11th of July."
And while we'll continue to monitor those river levels, for the MIDH, Saturday's flood came at an opportune time - just as they are about to install a new bridge at Mount Pleasant:
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer "And we believe that it was an opportune time for that to happen, even though we had to close the road for about 5.5 hours. We believe that it has highlighted to us where we have some weaknesses and where we can improve our drainage structures along the highway?"
"And so with, with what occurred at the Mount Pleasant, that was beyond our control. There was nothing much that we could have done about that. It it was really an excessive rainfall event. I believe it's in excess of 8 to 10in of rainfall that fell in that short period."
Moody says the floods have also exposed a major vulnerability in the infrastructure network:
Jules Vasquez: "Has this exposed a major vulnerability in our nation's infrastructure?"
Evondale Moody: "Yes, it has, definitely it has. And, we can't run away from that. That is something that is inevitable. However, as a ministry, we are trying to see how best we could, alleviate that situation by the construction of this new bridge structure. That will be located at Mount Pleasant, but it has exposed a weakness within the highway structure, especially at the Mount Pleasant location."
With another tropical wave approaching, NEMO's Coordinator, Daniel Mendez says they will continue to assist those most impacted by the floods.
Daniel Mendez, NEMO Coordinator "So after noting the rainfall flood conditions were registered in the Belmopan area, which you have seen the images of as a result, the Belmopan Emergency Operations Center was activated and work begun with the Belmopan City Council and has continued, up to today. NEMO remains in close coordination with the National Meteorological Service and the National Hydrological Service. Our district emergency centers and other authorities to monitor evolving conditions in Belmopan. We have been conducting assessments, over the weekend, and we have been providing assistance to communities who were, communities and persons who were affected by flooding. We are also continuing our work to determine the extent of the impact and to continue to identify immediate needs of persons in these areas. The information gathered, from these assessments will guide response and recovery efforts and ensure that assistance is directed to the communities and persons most in need. As of this morning, we have conducted over 100 assessments, within, the Cayo District and some in the Stann Creek district. And we have also been working, in the Toledo District as well, providing support to communities who are affected in that area. NEMO continues to closely monitor communities along the Belize river valley as we expect, these river levels to rise over the next 24 to 48 hours based on the assessments provided to us from by the National Hydrological Service, our district emergency operations centers in Belmopan. Remain open. In Toledo, we continue to support, those communities and those remain, on partial activation and we are preparing the Belize Rural Emergency Operations Center in anticipation for any, potential, flooding conditions, which we may see."
And while the weather and flooding situation remains dynamic, the road closure was a major inconvenience to hundreds of road users on Saturday. The Chief engineer takes responsibility for it and apologized:
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer "I would be the first as the chief engineer, the lead technical person for the ministry. I would definitely like to apologize that we had to close the highway. However, the rainfall event that occurred was beyond my control, was beyond anybody's control. We took it in an interest and an abundance of safety to not allow people to pass through that area because of the high velocity flow that was passing there. I mean, I was out there, Jules and I when vehicle by vehicle turning vehicles, but informing them that they could not pass. Because we were more concerned about the safety of the public. Yes, definitely. I will take responsibility for the closure because I was the one that initiated the closure. However, what occurred over the weekend? Only the good Lord hs control of that."
She is known as the Queenpin of the Southside Gang but tonight Doris Grant is in critical condition at the KHMH after coming under heavy fire last night in a gang-related ambush. Jomarie Lanza has more.
Three gunmen fired as many as 30 expended shells into this Nissan Titan pickup at around 1:00 this morning as it crossed the Bel China Bridge.
Austin Underwood and Doris Grant, along with an associate, had just left the Princess Casino and were heading back to their home on the south side when they came under attack:
ACP Hilberto Romero, HNCIB "This morning police responded to a shooting incident at the Belchina bridge upon arrival they learned that persons were in a vehicle and persons came and fired several shots towards their direction. The vehicle was driven to the Karl Heusner where Doris Grant was observed with several gunshot injuries, she is listed in a critical condition at this time. information is they were driving across the bridge when three male persons approached the vehicle and all 3 fired several shots towards the vehicle causing injuries to Grant. She was along with Austin Underwood and Andres Orozco a Colombia national. We are currently reviewing video footages and seeking persons in regard to this shooting."
"Approximately 30 shells were recovered,"
Reporter: "And the type of weapon used?"
ACP Hilberto Romero: "A 9mm pistol."
Police are certain it is gang related and it's not the first time Grant and Underwood have been attacked in this way.
The Reggae Street residents were previously targeted back in June of 2024 while leaving a concert. They were also crossing a bridge that time - and both received minor gunshot injuries. Grant's vehicle was described as "riddled with bullets".
In February of 2025, Grant's vehicle was burned on Vernon Street - right after a failed mediation meeting with another city gang.
And then on New Year's eve, 2025, her driver was killed as he sat inside her pickup - the gunman may have wanted to target Grant.
She continues to be a target of a rival city gang - and, with eh kind of firepower declared last night, that gap between life and death was razor thin.
For police, the priority is to make an arrest and quell any retaliation - which is not uncommon in this kind of high velocity attack:
ACP Hilberto Romero, HNCIB "No motive has been established at the time."
"No suspects have been detained."
"We have several operations ongoing at this time to prevent any form of retaliation. And we have several operational units in the city doing patrols."
And while the attack on Grant was attempted murder - murder was the case on Friday night in Santa Elena when contractor Ricky Dawson Jr was shot and killed in a drain outside of his yard.
It has the appearance of an ambush, but who would have wanted Dawson Jr dead? Jaleeza Roberts spoke to his family:
These candles now mark the spot inside a Santa Elena drain where the body of thirty-three-year-old Ricky Dawson Jr. was discovered following Friday night's fatal shooting on San Leopold Street.
ACP Hilberto Romero, HNCIB "On Friday the tenth day of July 2026, police responded to a shooting incident in Santa Elena, upon arrival they learned that a male person had been shot, he was identified as Ricky Dawson and he was seen with multiple gun shot injuries. Information is that Dawson was in the area of his house when a vehicle arrived, persons came out and fired several shots towards his direction causing his fatal injuries. We have 2 persons in custody in regards to this murder."
"They were detained this morning and will be interviewed."
"No we do not believe it is connected to any other incident we believe it is drug related."
But for whatever reason police believe he was killed on Friday night, his relatives knew him as a family man:
Paula Dawson, Aunt of Deceased "Ricky for us was a caring, hardworking young man. He knew what he wanted in life and he went for it, Ricky was not a person that you saw out there drinking or smoking he never had tasted alcohol one day in his life. He doesn't like crowds. His happiness is working with his horse because he does horse racing, he has sheep and some pigs and basically just family. He was a dad, more than anything else and his daughter was the highlight of his life."
But police say that Dawson was known to police:
Jaleeza Roberts: "Is he known to police?"
ACP Hilberto Romero: "Yes he is known to police."
But when we asked his aunt Paula whether or not someone may have been after him, she said they would never have thought someone would ever want to hurt him:
Paula Dawson, Aunt of Deceased "He was quiet, and actually he was somebody that could handle himself so we didnt have any reason to believe that his life was in danger, he didn't do anyone anything out there."
And apart from the father of his 9 year old daughter, he will be remembered for his passion:
Paula Dawson, Aunt of Deceased "I could have to say his passion for food. He could eat a horse if you know him he's very tall, extremely tall and very slim bodied but he always always had a healthy appetite. The first thing he come in the house he want know what's in the pot. He's helped a lot of people, he's helped a lot of individuals and that is the Ricky we know and the Ricky we will always remember."
And that's how they choose to remember Dawson Jr, but his aunt is sending out a strong call for criminals to stop the ruthless violence:
Paula Dawson, Aunt of Deceased "You all need to stop this nonsense, families are being torn apart ridiculously, you know. I have to watch my nephew, I have to bury my nephew, I have to watch his daughter grow up without a father, we are having more and more fatherless children within Belize and we have seemed to lost our sense of humanity. You all need to stop that."
Earlier this year you met Luanna Gillett, a former police officer whose life was turned upside down after she was sexually assaulted by a fellow cop at the San Ignacio Police Station - and it was caught on camera. The incident happened more than two years ago and she has still not received justice.
Today, Gillett and her alleged assailant, Durmen Dawson, were back in San Ignacio Magistrate's court but the nightmare is still not over for Gillett. That's because - as she told us today - the presiding magistrate ruled that Dawson has no case to answer in the sexual assault and will only have to answer for harm. Dawson was also unrepresented in court today.
It's the worst case scenario for Gillett, but she says she is not giving up the fight. We will keep following.
Murder charges against 28-year-old Andre Arthurs ended in an acquittal today after Justice Nigel Pilgrim found him not guilty of the March 8, 2025 killing of Mark Usher Jr. in Belize City.
The prosecution alleged that Usher was fatally shot while walking home near the corner of Jabiru and Faber's Road.
Although the judge found a key prosecution witness to be credible, he ruled that the police identification procedure used to link Arthurs to the crime was unreliable.
Arthurs was acquitted based on that and released from custody. Here's how his attorney Simeon Sampson outside of court who explained further:
Yesterday, a video posted by a tourist sparked intense outrage after he captured his colleague petting a jaguar cub.
Victor and Ruben Stoll were in the Mountain Pine Ridge area where they happened upon a mother jaguar and their cub. They then begin to capture as they chased the cub down a trail. Victor Stoll then explained in a Facebook post that they put the vehicle between the mother jaguar and the cub before approaching it. Ruben Stoll then proceeded to touch the cub, which was in obvious distress. At one point, the cub even hissed at its assailant.
The Facebook posts also explained that the men had been traveling in the region trying to find a jaguar. They had been in the reserve along with Belizean Leslie Penner.
Jaguar experts have since explained that this act by the tourists could potentially lessen the cub's chances of survival, since its mother may abandon it after it picks up a human scent. The Belize Zoo's executive director also explained in a Facebook post that Belize's Wildlife Protection Act prohibits the molestation of jaguars, which are fully protected under the act.
Since then, we have reached out to the Minister of Sustainable Development to ask whether the tourists will be penalized, however, he explained that he had not seen the video before and would forward it to the Wildlife Officer.
"The BDF needs its food" - that's how a former Commanding Officer for The Army's Services and Support Battalion explained the practice of batch invoicing.
That's the practice we've been exposing for weeks where a cascade of invoices for under 10,000 dollars would all be processed on one day. We have reviewed almost 2,000 leaked invoice screenshots from the Ministry of Defence - paid out to 10 entities - and 96% of them were under $10,000 dollars, which means they didn't have to go to the Treasury Department for approval.
That has the pattern of suspicious transaction but according to the man who once dealt with those supplies - it's actually a practice built out of necessity:
Jules Vasquez "We're looking at a cascade of thousands of invoices under 10,000. From your experience, why does this happen?"
BDF Whistleblower, Ex-Commanding Officer - Services and Support Battalion "Well, this happened simply because the BDF needs its food, and the government takes a long while to pay these vendors for the items that we need."
"As a former commanding officer for the services and support battalion, I am fully aware that this has been a practice for some time now."
"Now, we would ensure that it is below the 10,000 because you need to understand that most of these vendors would have already gotten a tender, um, approval, which is basically a contract to, uh, provide a particular item for the Belize Defense Force."
"Now, if they go through the process of getting payment for the entire month for the amount of items that they provide to the BDF, the process takes extremely long before they get their money from the government of Belize."
"So by getting or doing it in portions of under 10,000, we could get our items much quicker."
Jules Vasquez "Because if they wait to get paid a bulk payment in contract, maybe they get paid 100,000."
BDF Whistleblower "Yes".
Jules Vasquez "A portion of the value of the contract, it will take months. Yes. And while that is happening, the supplier becomes impatient, maybe run out of cash flow."
BDF Whistleblower "That is correct."
Jules Vasquez "That is- And when that happens, what happens to the supplies?"
BDF Whistleblower "When that happens, we don't have no supplies on our shelf. That's when you would probably get your inside scoop from soldiers, officers who would tell you, "Guess what? They're eating just bread," or, "They're eating just noodles," or, "They're just eating rice," or whatever the case might be because, um, suppliers would stop sending in their items."
"This practice you would see clearly much when it comes to the end of the, um, financial year."
"Uh, when you see January, February approaching, you will find out that in the BDF stores, you won't find much items in the stores because by then everyone... The money is, is either finished or they're waiting, suppliers are waiting to be paid before they provide their new set of items before the, um, financial year comes to an end."
"And, uh, and that's pretty much how it has been for some time now."
Jules Vasquez "So have you ever seen situation where the, where the stores, the shelf, they're empty and there's nothing to eat?"
BDF Whistleblower "A number of times. Um, a number of times as a, um, commanding officer, I mean, member of the BDF, we need... we would have to go and approach the same vendors and pretty much be begging them to, um, provide us with the item, assuring them that we would, um, ensure that they get their payment within a certain time span."
Our whistleblower also exposed the practice of buying rations for the BDF - not at the best available price - but at the price that would most benefit those seeking kickbacks:
BDF Whistleblower, Ex-Commanding Officer - Services and Support Battalion "And as far as I'm concerned, pork chops is pork chops. But you would find out that you might get pork chops from supplier A for five dollars and then supplier B for six dollars and supplier C for ten dollars and you're getting the same pork chops."
"Why is that so? I can't tell you. As far as I'm concerned, when we want a certain quantity of the item, it reduces it when the price have to be ranging in that manner."
"And then not only that too as well, you find out that you cannot spend the amount of money that you actually have because in some cases, most of the product, as in the pork chops, would have been gotten from the guy who is selling it for nine dollars rather than the one who is selling it for five dollars."
"And why do you think that is? That is, you and I know it's because someone is getting their kickbacks and they want their portion of that money that is going to that supplier there."
"From my observation, rarely you will find that you'll get the best item for the best price. In most cases, what suits the individual who is pilfering is what they would go with."
They were in the headlines tonight discussing the unpredictability of extreme rain events.
And hopefully some new equipment they received today will help in forecasting such events.
The National Meteorological Service today received a donation of three SOFAR marine monitoring stations from the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology.
These will be utilized at English Caye, Glover's Reef, and Southern Turneffe Atoll and will aid in early warning services. The Chief Meteorologist explained more.
Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist, National Meteorological Service "We are today receiving a donation of 3 marine monitoring stations through the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology under the RCCAME. This project is funded through the Caribbean Development Bank with financing from the European Union. This project will assist us to enhance our monitoring capabilities with the marine environment. Many persons know that we have a vast network of weather stations on the main land and we do have a few offshore in the cayes and these stations are currently only monitoring atmospheric variables, pressure, your air temperature, and wind and that type of thing. We know that we have a gap in terms of monitoring oceanic variables and these stations will assist us to do so. So it certainly is a very important initiative to enhance our capacity in providing more early warning to the public, building resilience especially along coastal communities as many as we know most of our residents reside along the coast so it's important that we're able to build the capacity to provide those early warnings."
Courtney Forde, Mission Lead, Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology "As Mr Gordon mentioned, Belize has received 3 buoys, two carry a conventional mooring so just an anchor, your anchor line, and the buoy itself. One is a what we would call, has a smart mooring so this one has temperature sensors along a data cable as opposed to just the temperature at the surface you get the temperature profile throughout the water column so it has one sensor at the top, one in the middle of the water column and one close to the bottom so you get that range of temperatures throughout the water column. Apart from that, each of them measure barometric pressure, you get waves, they all measure waves and then you get wind speed which is derived from the waves."
Election activist Jerry Enriquez is still on the quest to force a redistricting exercise, as he describes it, there have been hurdles along the way.
But there's also been vindication.
Enriquez and his attorney has taken three cases to the CCJ and seen major wins.
He gave us an update via Zoom today.
Jerry Enriquez, Activist "One for the wasted cost that he was imposing on my attorney that means the attorney must pay half the cost of the state for the case that we brought up. Secondly was the procedure for appealing our case. That judge, there was also another technicality in which the opposing party was arguing that we did not properly file for the appeal. That was based on the rule that the order for appeal must be signed, sealed or otherwise perfected and so that was another hurdle for us to cross. The CCJ ruled that the ruling in that appeal was not appropriate and therefore it was thrown out. Thirdly was the, so we won on those two cases, we won the CCJ throughout the wasted cost, the shameless cost that was being imposed by the judge in order to prevent us from moving further and in a way to teach my attorney a lesson as he mentioned even before the case was judged. Then the other one we won of course was the perfected order which means that we could have appeal because the order was already signed and sealed by the judge. So that was the second one. The third one, our appeal was the biased application, that wanted the judge recused from the our case. The CCJ ruled that we must remit that appeal to the high court, our appeal for recusal of the judge. So those are the three cases."
"We have to get back now to appealing our case and to get that through the process. We have crossed those hurdles and therefore we intend to challenge the ruling of Justice Hondora in our case regarding redistricting."
Shrouded in Secrecy: Elections Commission Denies Enriquez's FOIA Request
The last time we spoke to Enriquez, he explained that he had sent a Freedom of Information Request to the Elections and Boundaries Commission. He explained that while the government insists that the redistricting process is happening, it remains shrouded in secrecy.
However, he got a response three weeks ago, and his request had been denied.
He spoke to us more about that as well.
Jerry Enriquez, Activist "The FOIA was basically seeking information as to the process for redistricting. Right now, everything seems to be done in secrecy and so the public has a right to know how that process is going on, what are the proposals for redistricting or balancing the electoral divisions, the public has a right to know if they are on target to complete this by the end of 2026 like the prime minister promised. The point is that we've been burnt before when between 2020 and 2025, after the prime minister repeatedly promised that redistricting will be done, all of a sudden it was not done, the proposal submitted by the elections and boundaries commission was not accepted, it was carelessly done in my view because it did not meet the target for international standards and over two decades there have not been redistricting as it ought to have been done so we need to know, the public needs to know what is going on. I find that the response by the elections and boundaries commission to be arrogant and they're still maintaining secrecy. They ought to still provide some information if not all to inform the citizens of Belize where we're at and just to keep us informed, this culture of secrecy and arrogance. It's unacceptable for any democracy."
"I could tell you that it could be a very tiring sometimes frustrating thing but we have to keep our eye on the goal and that goal is for Belizeans to be fairly represented in the National Assembly as is mandated by the constitution, so that is the goal."
Accountability Crisis: Enriquez Sues Government Over Vacant Ombudsman Seat
And since there is no ombudsman, Enriquez cannot challenge the denial of his FOIA. So he is now suing the government for not appointing a new ombudsman. Here's what he said about that.
Jerry Enriquez, Activist "Yes we have a case on July 21st against the attorney general for the failure of the government to fill that important post of the ombudsman. There is no way in the constitution that a government can decide in and of their own selves that we can delay and not have an ombudsman that is not right therefore we want the court to set that right so that it does not happen again."
"There is no reason to have no ombudsman in place even though there is move to turn it into a human rights office, that should not prevent the people during that process to have access to an ombudsman. In fact, the big flaw was that they terminated the former ombudsman without even having someone in place, that should not have happened. It is like saying well we will not have a governor general, let us wait because we're going to try to figure out what the role will be or we will not have a minister in his office or we will not have anybody, we will not have an auditor general, we will not have these key positions until we decide when we're ready. That cannot happen and that is unconstitutional and therefore they cannot come up with those kinds of excuses."
SIRDI Gets 5 Hiluxes
Today GOB handed over 4 new Toyota Hilux pickup trucks to the Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute known as SIRDI. An additional truck was also donated to the Climate Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture Project.
The CEO of the Ministry of Economic Transformation explained more.
Carlos Pol, CEO, Ministry of Economic Transformation "We have a project that is here to assist especially the Northern districts with the cane. Government approached the World Bank in 2022 and requested a loan to help our farmers because they were in a very difficult situation back then. So the World Bank stepped up and decided to help us with this climate resilient which will look at integrated smart agriculture practices, building capacity for institutions and the handing over of this vehicle is part of this building capacity to SIRDI which is the research department that will help us in collecting more data and ensuring that we achieve the objectives that was being laid out in this five year program."
Marcos Osorio, Executive Director, SIRDI "The set of 5 vehicles that SIRDI is receiving along with sugar cane production committee will at this time weather conditions that are challenging for the agricultural sector and in this case the sugar cane industry of northern Belize, it is very challenging when it comes to pests and diseases and it requires more mobilization of our technical team in the fields to provide support to farmers to do monitoring, to do pest control and management. This set of vehicles will certainly make our services to farmers and the industry at large more efficient and will bring about the necessary support to all cane farmers in ensuring that we can bring back the industry to what it was some years ago."
Influencial Music Producer Dies At 42 From Cancer
And finally tonight, Belize's music industry is mourning the loss of acclaimed producer and musician Kendoyll "KSBEATS" Simpson, who passed away yesterday after a two-year battle with cancer.
The 42-year-old Simpson was widely regarded as one of Belize's most influential music producers, earning respect for shaping the sound of numerous local artists through his work at Simpson Productions and his distinctive production style. Tributes have poured in from musicians, entertainers, and fans across the country, remembering him not only for his musical talent but also for his mentorship and lasting contributions to Belize's entertainment industry.
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Tonight, Belmopan residents, engineers, and city planners are still trying to figure out what happened in Belmopan on Saturday. The Capital City saw record flooding in various areas, but what triggered it?
Pablo Cawich, Mayor of Belmopan
And while the City Council is preparing for contingencies - was anyone truly prepared for the volume of rainfall that poured down on Belmopan?
"So yes over the weekend we had a tropical wave that across the country on Saturday. That system came along with a very strong low level jet as we refer to it, strong winds, in the atmosphere and there was also upper level support for the system to produce significant rainfall, especially over the Belmopan area the Cayo District In terms of numbers, we recorded in a matter of about 12 hours, Belmopan got 273.4mm, which is 10.8 inches of rainfall in just about 12 hours from about midnight until about midday. To put that in perspective, the average rainfall for Belmopan is about 245mm for the month of July, which is 9.7 inches So the capital city recorded, more than its monthly average in just 12 hours. Historically this is not the highest that the city has seen on June 19th, 2002. We recorded 334mm of rainfall, which is 13.1inches so even though it's a significant amount of rain, it didn't break, historical record overall for Belmopan. Other notable areas, stations La Gracia which is just few miles to the northwest of Belmopan got 8.5 inches and Hershey got 8.4 inches so in that general vicinity we saw significant amounts of rainfall in a very short time period from this system."
So why couldn't they predict the level of rainfall with greater accuracy?
Evondale Moody, Chief Engineer
Gordon then turned us over to Chief Hydrologist Hendy who explained how the high levels of rainfall led to flooding in our main river systems.
"So what we saw was the flooding was caused primarily by rainfall totals due to excessive volumes and it resulted in substantial run off into these systems and the higher impacted systems centrally where the rainfall was concentrated is the Belize river valley system, at more tomorrow And now we're seeing that downstream at the Double Run station, which is our own Sand hill, in the lower Belize River is now experiencing bank full, flood stages. The Sibun river continues to,exceed bank full and continues to increase on a linear direction."
Moody says the floods have also exposed a major vulnerability in the infrastructure network:
"So after noting the rainfall flood conditions were registered in the Belmopan area, which you have seen the images of as a result, the Belmopan Emergency Operations Center was activated and work begun with the Belmopan City Council and has continued, up to today. NEMO remains in close coordination with the National Meteorological Service and the National Hydrological Service. Our district emergency centers and other authorities to monitor evolving conditions in Belmopan. We have been conducting assessments, over the weekend, and we have been providing assistance to communities who were, communities and persons who were affected by flooding. We are also continuing our work to determine the extent of the impact and to continue to identify immediate needs of persons in these areas. The information gathered, from these assessments will guide response and recovery efforts and ensure that assistance is directed to the communities and persons most in need. As of this morning, we have conducted over 100 assessments, within, the Cayo District and some in the Stann Creek district. And we have also been working, in the Toledo District as well, providing support to communities who are affected in that area. NEMO continues to closely monitor communities along the Belize river valley as we expect, these river levels to rise over the next 24 to 48 hours based on the assessments provided to us from by the National Hydrological Service, our district emergency operations centers in Belmopan. Remain open. In Toledo, we continue to support, those communities and those remain, on partial activation and we are preparing the Belize Rural Emergency Operations Center in anticipation for any, potential, flooding conditions, which we may see."
She is known as the Queenpin of the Southside Gang but tonight Doris Grant is in critical condition at the KHMH after coming under heavy fire last night in a gang-related ambush. Jomarie Lanza has more.
"Approximately 30 shells were recovered,"
And while the attack on Grant was attempted murder - murder was the case on Friday night in Santa Elena when contractor Ricky Dawson Jr was shot and killed in a drain outside of his yard.
Paula Dawson, Aunt of Deceased
Earlier this year you met Luanna Gillett, a former police officer whose life was turned upside down after she was sexually assaulted by a fellow cop at the San Ignacio Police Station - and it was caught on camera. The incident happened more than two years ago and she has still not received justice.
Yesterday, a video posted by a tourist sparked intense outrage after he captured his colleague petting a jaguar cub.
BDF Whistleblower, Ex-Commanding Officer - Services and Support Battalion
They were in the headlines tonight discussing the unpredictability of extreme rain events.
Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist, National Meteorological Service
Courtney Forde, Mission Lead, Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology
Jerry Enriquez, Activist
Today GOB handed over 4 new Toyota Hilux pickup trucks to the Sugar Industry Research and Development Institute known as SIRDI. An additional truck was also donated to the Climate Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture Project.
Carlos Pol, CEO, Ministry of Economic Transformation
Marcos Osorio, Executive Director, SIRDI
And finally tonight, Belize's music industry is mourning the loss of acclaimed producer and musician Kendoyll "KSBEATS" Simpson, who passed away yesterday after a two-year battle with cancer.
