Hurricane Richard

Hurricane Richard hit last Sunday (October 24, 2010) night here in Belize.  I lost electricity at around 6:30 PM and didn't get electricity until Thursday morning around 6:00 AM.  We (the Landeros and I) relocated from our houses to the school library because our houses were shaking, and also water was getting into our houses.  We brought some things to the library and set up some couches so we could stay there for the night.  Edson and Ethan fell asleep right away (Kelly and Alondra's two little boys). The library was leaking water too so eventually the whole floor was wet.  The eye of the storm happened to come around 9:00 PM.  We ran around a bit, fixing some things and covering with more plastic.  One bolt on the corner of our roof of the school came off.  That's all a storm needs to pull off a roof.  Just one spot to get wind underneath.  I quickly climbed a bunch and was handed a drill and put in two bolts for safe measures.  Then we ran to the Landero's house and covered some more things with plastic there.  Coming back to the library I noticed that the little garage/awning for the tractor had blown right into the fourth from classroom and knocked out a window.  We get back inside the library and waited the storm out.  I was awake on and off the rest of the night waiting to morning.  The storm was done by 2:00 AM.  I just stepped out and looked at what was in eye sight, I didn't explore at that time.  We all got up around 5:00 and started the investigation and the fixation of the school.  We went outside and we could see zink (that's the roofing here) and fallen trees everywhere.  The school's green house was also destroyed along with a small plant nursery.  A tool shed was flipped over, a building was actually moved like an inch and made it difficult to open a door.  A basket ball hoop was broken and fallen to the ground.  As I said before, the garage was in the 4th form classroom and that ruined part of the roof.  Our bathrooms were destroyed as well.  Some of the roofing from the Landero's house was blown off too.  After finding out what damage was done, we began to work.  We repaired the roofing and put the window back it.  The window is bent a bit, but it's better than nothing. After that I had to clean out my house.  It was dirty and wet and had a bunch of leaves blown in there, but my stuff was fine and dry.  I covered it with plastic beforehand. After that I went to Mr. Cabana's house and helped him thatch his roof.  Which is intertwine a type of tree branch here to patch his roof.  That was new and exciting.  Then I cut some coconuts off the tree and had fresh coconut water.  DELICIOUS!!!!!  Now I'll post some pictures.