AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Talk Belize Weather Tropical Storms & Hurricanes M/V Wave Dancer

We don't know the circumstances of what the Captain and the passengers decided. But using my own experience, I would have given them a choice. Disembark, or go with the boat and resume their dive trip afterward. I rather think it was the tourist passengers decision, not the Captain to stay aboard.
The hurricane was a small one. There was every liklihood that it would miss them. And if it brushed them, no big deal, if you got into the snaky creek of Big Creek, through the lagoon and around the bend and up to the dock at the warehouse thereabouts. I would think you were as safe as you could be.
The only snake in the ointment was if, you got immediately in front of the EYE. In which case, storm surge, which would have been about 4 to 8 miles across at the most. Maybe even less than that; would lift your boat up, so high it would put you above the protection of the coastal barrier and the mangroves. I bet you, all those people were tied up snugly watching television and the weather channel and congratulating themselves what a nice snug spot they had. I have no doubt they were watching the satellite photographs. They could have freely gone ashore at any time, at the Warehouse Banana loading dock. There was dry land, but rising wind.
When the EYE twisted and twitched south a sudden 25 miles and forced the storm surge right at them, I betcha it caught all of them by surprise. With the switch, storm surge flooded the land and there was no longer anyplace to go ashore. Just a roaring flood of sea water swirling over the dock and land, as the boat rose up. As in Archimedes Law on buoyancy.
Nope, they got caught by surprise in a period of 45 minutes. Their options ran out from EXCELLENT, to some strong winds and safety; to exposure by rising storm surge into the full force of the winds. The same thing happened to those that stayed in Placentia village. They were safe until the water started rising rapidly in minutes.
We haven't got the death count from Placentia yet. But I bet it is going to be considerable. How many of them did not leave? For the same reasons! The storm was going to Dangriga, then Sittee River in a worse case scenario. That it twitched and veered further south at the last moment, was the bad luck of the draw. Nobody forecasted that last twitch and veering south of 25 to 30 miles. In all, in the last two hours, the storm eye went from Dangriga to south of Placentia. A distance of 60 coastal miles or more.
I think the Captain and the passengers made the right decision. I would have stayed on the boat too up that creek in a hurricane hole. Independence town, in 145 miles an hour winds, does not inspire me with confidence. Flying debris and trees would have been far more dangerous than sitting in the creek on the boat protected by land and mangroves. That is banana plantations and jungle back there. Where would you go? There is only the hurricane shelters, all of which failed. Should they have given up their trip? I don't know what you would do? But for a small hurricane like that, I don't think I would have either. The chances of getting hit, were pretty small. I'm fairly sure they had a choice. As Captain, I would have given them one.

Ray

Until the evening of October 7th this was a Catagory 1 storm, and was tracking to the north and expected to hit north of Belize City, or at the very least Dangriga. Thus the evacuation of San Pedro and the areas in that direction.
There were many other boats moored at Big Creek that weathered the storm very well under the circumstances.
Wave Dancer had some legendary sea faring bad luck, and that is the nature of the sea.

Second guessing and pointing fingers is not a very constructive approach to this tragedy.

There are many decisions to be made at the last minute. The best options were made at each point in the process.
When Hurricane Mitch was coming the boats from Rum Point too tried to go to Lake Isabal, but the weather had broken up so much that the boat spent the storm at Big Creek. Along side the Aggressor and the Wave Dancer. And that storm stalled and gave everyone plenty of time to make as many decisions as they deemed necessary.
There are inherent dangers to any venture taken in remote areas...

I hope folks are not finger pointing, but i posted some of these comments just because these are knowledgable people discussing subjects which they know a lot about. so i thought i would share them. i think folks are wondering some of these things, so i thought i would post discussions from these friends.

My question is why did the boat even leave on October 6 as the newspaper article states? if as you stated "...messages on October 5, tracking the storm. By that time, Belize was a definite target, the only question was WHERE would it hit. On October 6, people on Ambergris Caye were talking evacuation. On October 7, the evacuation was in full force...." And so they headed out the 6th, why the hell didn't they make safe harbor on the 7?

If you want to accuse me of "finger pointing," go ahead. I will always point my finger when corporations put their bottom line ahead of the safety of their customers and staff.
And you will note, its always the big corporate enterprises that end up killing people. You don't see local dive boats going down in hurricanes with people aboard, do you? No, because they put people first and they have enough sense to get them the hell out of the water.
When there is a tropical storm, let alone a HURRICANE, anywhere within a few hundred miles of you, you nearly always have plenty of time to GET THE PEOPLE OUT OF THE WATER. Here, they had FOUR DAYS to get the people to dry land and up away from the coast, once it became likely that the storm would become a hurricane and would land SOMEWHERE in Belize.
housands of Belizeans did it. But the corporate owned Peter Hughes diving operation chose not to, thereby risking the lives of its customers and crew rather than avoid having to pay refunds.
If more people "pointed the finger" at this kind of inexcusable profit-driven negligence, maybe it would stop. If "pointing the finger" causes some bean counter to make a different decision (or causes a caption to disobey the bean counter) next time, it's worth it.

My heart goes out to everyone who is suffering from this terrible hurricane. I'm not sure whether to ask my question here, but it is worse not to know. The last I heard Demi was captain of the Wave Dancer... does anyone know if he's ok?

Hurricane Iris Kills at Least Nine in Belize


Updated: Tue, Oct 09 12:23 PM EDT
By Catherine Bremer
INDEPENDENCE, Belize (Reuters) - Powerful hurricane Iris killed at least nine people on a diving boat when it slammed into the Caribbean coast of Belize Monday night, blowing down houses and ripping off roofs in a 30-mile-wide region, officials and witnesses said Tuesday.

Divers recovered bodies of nine people who died after the Wave Dancer, a 40-foot diving boat carrying American tourists and a Belizean crew, broke loose from a dock in the port of Independence, 116 miles south of Belize City, and went down, rescuers said Tuesday.

Of the party of 28 American tourists and Belizean crew on board, 11 people were still missing and presumed dead and eight people survived, rescuers and witnesses said.



Captain Jerry Schnabel of the Belize Aggressor, another boat caught in the storm, said, "It looks like a tugboat broke loose and hit their vessel." The tugboat appeared to have punctured a hole in the Wave Dancer "and in less than a minute they were down (sunk)," he said.

Many residents of this Central American nation fled inland before the storm blew ashore about 80 miles south-southwest of Belize City, with winds of 140 mph.

After hitting shore the storm rapidly weakened. By 5 a.m. EDT, Iris was near the border of Guatemala and Mexico, downgraded to a tropical storm after her wind speeds dropped to 40 mph, the U.S. National Weather Service said.

The strongest part of the storm hit towns along the coast including Monkey River Town, Placencia and Independence and the port of Big Creek.

"All of Monkey River seems to have been destroyed," Belize government information officer Patrick Jones told Reuters. Monkey River Town has a population of about 2,500 people.

Belize, which has a population of about 250,000, is no stranger to hurricanes. In 1961 a killer storm prompted the government to move the capital inland from Belize City to Belmopan.

Last year, Hurricane Keith killed 15 people in Belize, Honduras and Nicaragua and caused an estimated $200 million in damage to Belize's economy, which is dependent on bananas, sugar and tourism.

WOODEN BUILDINGS BLOWN DOWN

In Independence, a town of 5,000, Iris ripped corrugated zinc roofs off most buildings and blew down some buildings near the port, witnesses said. Most homes are made of wood but residents took shelter in the school and other concrete buildings.

A few people were taken to hospital for injuries.

The intense storm itself lasted only a few hours, tore things up and died away, and people were quickly back up and around. Not much flooding had occurred, witnesses said.

"We sheltered in a concrete bathroom for a while but we lost the roof and everything poured and in crashed in," said a Reuters journalist who sat out the storm in Independence. She and her companions then raced to another place of safety.

The Wave Dancer was among several boats docked in the port on Mango Creek near Independence, which is on a spit of sand where the eye of the hurricane first hit. Those aboard the docked boats had hoped they could sit the storm out in their vessels, witnesses said.

Witnesses said they saw the boat swirling wildly in the water when the storm picked up.

About a quarter of the inhabitants of Independence had headed out Monday. Wealthier residents left in jeeps piled with mattresses, cooking pots and household possessions.

But most people living in the area are too poor to own cars and were unable to get a place on the daily bus inland, so they piled into the local school.

The ninth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, Iris killed three people in the Dominican Republic. Iris' rains lashed parts of Jamaica on Sunday but largely spared the island.

(Additional reporting by Greg Brosnan)

I am of the opinion that no one should be so arrogant as to think that they can read someones elses mind. The weather is a crap shoot at best when dealing with these storms. To say that a company's bottomline came into the decision is also arrogant and implies a holier than thou attitude. Please note that several Ambergris caye citizens and private boat owners seeking protection from this storm ended up instead in harms way. Their decisions to leave the island were based on what they thought was best at the time. What would of happened if the passengers had been forced off the "Wind dancer" into local shelters that latter became damaged. Would you then question the captian forcing them off the vessel? As stated earlier the "Wind dancer" was tied up in what the captian and numerous other vessels thought was a traditional so called safe deep water harbor area. If money was the driving force then why was the boat put in harms way? It has been my practical experience that judgements made from thousands of miles away is usually ends in error. It is my opinion that it would be best to gather some additional hard facts from the survivors before accusing the company actions as economical murder. Only my opinion.

Again, you can call me any kind of name you want: "finger pointer," "arrogant," bring it on!
SOMEBODY has got to stand up and tell the corporate emperor that he's wearing naked GREED! I guess I'm drafting myself to say it.
According to the corporation's representatives, who were interviewed in the article posted in this site above, this boat was docked in port in Belize City and BEGAN ITS CRUISE ON OCTOBER 6. On October 6, anybody who can read, see or hear knew that a HURRICANE WAS COMING TO BELIZE.
What to do? That's a no-brainer: CANCEL THE CRUISE until the danger is past. Give everybody a refund or a voucher and send them back to Virginia. For those who don't want to go, send them up into the Cayo District where the evacuees are already headed.
But do NOT NOT NOT NOT send them into the ocean when a HURRICANE IS ON THE WAY. Can it be any clearer than that?

Is this really the forum for this sort of discussion.

All this "noble" energy would be better served getting down there and doing something on the ground. These people need food and water and a roof...

My parents, who have been there for over 30 years, were right at ground zero and had to make decisions and may have lost everything they have worked for for all those 30 years.

So please if you wish to rant, please do so in the direction of the "supposed" perpetrators, we are trying to get answers here. (I'm sure their e-mail is working just fine and they would love to hear your opinion...)

I hope you are not "ambulance-chasing" and hoping to drum up some business in the midst of this tragedy...

I, for one, wish to know if my parents are alive and whether friends I have made over all these years are alive and have a home to put over their heads tonight.

Your soapbox will not serve any good purpose here...