BELIZE (Commonwealth Union)_ Tropical storm Lisa slowed on Thursday after making landfall in Belize, triggering flooding and knocking off power in areas of the country as it churned westward. Lisa has been reduced from a hurricane to a tropical storm, with the eye hovering approximately 85 miles (135 kilometres) outside of Belize City and heading at 12 miles per hour towards Guatemala and south-eastern Mexico as of 0600 GMT (19 kilometres per hour).
The storm system is predicted to pack a strong punch and produce heavy rain, surges, and flash flooding to Central America’s northern coast and the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula during the next day or so before diminishing as it travels inland.
Lisa smashed into the Sibun River, just southwest of Belize City’s economic core and historic capital, about 21:20 GMT on Wednesday, destroying trees, downing power lines, and flooding streets. “It’s quite risky for us,” Jasmin Ayuso, a 21-year-old secretary, told AFP, because “it floods swiftly, even with modest rain” in Belize.
A state of emergency has been declared in two areas, and a nationwide curfew has been imposed until Thursday am.
As the hurricane lashed the tourist-popular shoreline with maximum sustained gusts of over 50 mph, certain regions of the country were left without power (80 kph).
Schools and most businesses were shuttered, and the government established a number of shelters. Local media in Belize City and surrounding areas reported that buildings had been damaged and flooded, and trees had been uprooted. The National Hurricane Center said Lisa was heading for northern Guatemala and south-eastern Mexico, with a “reduction in forward speed” forecast as it passed over the Bay of Campeche. Lisa hits just three weeks after Julia, another Category 1 hurricane that killed scores in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
