Ambergris Caye Under Tropical Storm Watch: Preparation & Vigilance Continue With Beryl Almost 2 days Away

When it comes to Hurricane Beryl’s approach towards Belize and the Yucatan, Ambergris Caye’s stress levels may have dipped yesterday – as the storm shifted northward – but we remain on high alert. There is a Tropical Storm Watch in effect for the northern part of Belize – and folks take that quite seriously.

Some northern areas of Belize – especially the Corozal district – received flooding rains last week. And, as you guys know, the cayes are always vulnerable to storm surges and winds. The businesses on docks, those with boats, those who live in areas prone to flooding, there are many factors to consider.

From the US Navy Storm site:

Especially since the storm is still almost 2 days away from Yucatan landfall and is still a Category 4 with her sights set on Jamaica.

From the National Hurricane Center with updates 4x a day: 5:00 AM EDT, 11:00 AM EDT, 5:00 PM EDT, and 11:00 PM EDT or Belize Time: 3am, 9am, 3pm and 9pm.

Here is the morning projection as modeled by StormCarib.com – the LAT/LONG used is our house, 8 miles north of San Pedro town. The eye hitting 116.5 miles to our north.

24 hours ago, that number was 118 miles, Monday morning, it was 37 miles away.

Here are this morning’s PROJECTED wind projections and rain projections.

Yesterday’s post outlined closures for local water taxis and airlines – here are additional announcements made since yesterday.

Belize’s International Airport (in Ladyville, outside of Belize City) plans to remain open but they are watching the storm.

San Pedro Belize Express Water Taxi has a reduced schedule today – and NO RUNS tomorrow. See their website for information.

SAGA Humane Society is looking for fosters! Here is a picture they shared this morning of Marley waiting for a Foster for the storm. (If that doesn’t tug at your heart strings, you might be a monster 😉 )

NEMO (the National Emergency Management Organization) issued their 3rd Advisory this morning:

HURRICANE BERYL

As at 6:00 AM, WEDNESDAY, 3RD JULY, 2024

This system may bring moderate to heavy rainfall, mainly to the northern parts of the country, starting on Thursday night and continuing through Friday with total amounts of 2-4 inches and locally higher values. This may result in flooding across low-lying and flood prone areas of the country, especially over the North, as the ground is already saturated. Strong gusty winds will result in very rough sea conditions with large battering waves. A Tropical Storm Watch remains in effect from Belize City to Corozal, including the islands of Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker.

For the additional language information, see their Facebook page. (Belize is a facebook country!)

Here are some photos taken by Rachel Jensen of Luna Realty in town this morning.

Here’s what we are doing:

We postponed putting up the metal storm shutters on our house yesterday – and still plan to do it this afternoon or tomorrow morning. We had glass slat windows and they are far from hurricane proof.

We will be testing little generator (scratch that – the person who loaned it to us wants it back! I guess I don’t blame him) – just in case of power loss at home. We have a battery light/device charger (expensive but with all the power outages recently, it makes sense) – our battery-run fans (good for 6-8 hours – I LOVE THIS FAN), will charge extra batteries for phone…

We plan to pull our golf carts up on a ramp – in case our yard floods. (We are low ground)

We already boarded up and secured the property up north at Rocky Point on Monday. Many of the construction workers went home to Corozal district.

The camp on the west side of the island – we (not me 🙂 ) boarded up the larger windows and secured loose items – potted plants, bar under the open palapa, etc. We also pulled the boat up on shore.

Thanks for all your messages! Advice I’m giving myself: Be kind, try to think of others, stay away from this “news” site and don’t Drink and Facebook 🙂

If the storm turns out to be nothing much, it’s insane to be mad that you over-prepared. REJOICE. We dodged a bullet. Best thing ever.

Stay safe everyone!