Here's the info off that site....
Tornado may have caused Wave Dancer deaths
CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
INDEPENDENCE, Belize, Oct. 16 -- A tornado may have spun off Hurricane Iris and ripped the MV Wave Dancer from a dock in southern Belize and rolled it underwater Oct. 8, killing 17 scuba divers and three crew members.
That is the conclusion of investigators from Lloyd's of London, the Wave Dancer's insurance carrier, said Peter A. McLauchlan, a partner in the law firm representing the owners of the 120-foot adventure boat.
"Knowing what I know now, it's amazing anyone made it out alive," McLauchlan said after spending several days in Big Creek, where the disaster occurred. Fifteen of the 20 victims were from the Richmond, Va., area.
An official government investigation has not been completed.
Tornadoes frequently spin off fast-moving hurricanes. Belize locals have wondered if the hit-or-miss damage in their villages was compounded by twisters on top of Iris' 140 mph winds and sea surges.
McLauchlan said eyewitness accounts, physical evidence and twisting damage in nearby wreckage led to the tornado conclusion.
For example, Wave Dancer videographer Thomas Baechtold of Sweden, who was found alive in the mangroves some 300 feet away, told investigators it felt like he was plucked out of the water by 20 pairs of hands and flung far away.
Ropes holding the boat snapped, and cleats were torn off the boat and the large concrete dock.
But Angelo Mouzouropoulos, director-general of the International Merchant Marine Registry of Belize, said although the tornado theory has merit, his agency has not concluded its investigation.
Among the loose ends are comments made by one of the survivors aboard the Wave Dancer broadcast by Belize television.
Angela Luk, the boat's assistant cook for five months, told Channel 5 News in Belize she was told by the Wave Dancer's captain she would be fired if she left the Wave Dancer to find shelter shortly before the hurricane hit.
"He said, 'If you go, you're not coming back.' I said, 'That's fine, I'm still going. I'm not going to be stupid and stay on the boat and risk my life,'" Luk recalled.
Luk told the television station she tried to convince other crew members to come with her. "They was really worried, there was crying and they was confused. They don't know if they should go home, they wonder if they could go back to Corozal or if they should stay on the boat. But they decided to stay."
Three of those crew members died. The Wave Dancer's captain declined to discuss what happened.
Mouzouropoulos has made arrangements to meet Luk. "I have heard this allegation, and I am investigating it," he said.
He said he also has investigated the allegation those aboard the Wave Dancer were drinking and having a "Hurricane Party," as was reported in the news in Belize and in at least one major newspaper in America.
"Absolutely not," Mouzouropoulos said. "I have completely and utterly exhausted that one. No trace. And I was gunning for that one. If there was evidence [of heavy drinking], I'd be the first one to jump on it like a ton of bricks."
The Wave Dancer was properly registered and inspected, and "it would appear at the moment all precautions had been taken to properly and correctly secure the vessel at the dock," Mouzouropoulos said.
That contrasts with the account of tugboat captain Earl Young, who was in his tug and watching when the Wave Dancer broke free from the dock in front of him. Young said he believes the Wave Dancer was tied too tightly to the dock to account for the vast storm surge.
Mouzouropoulos said there is much left to do before a conclusion can be reached. "You can rest assured there will be a proper report," he said.
Bart Stanley, dive master aboard the Wave Dancer, said the boat's owners and lawyers asked him not to discuss issues surrounding the vessel's demise.
But the Belize City resident said the storm defied human comprehension. He said he survived "by the will of God."
One moment, Stanley said, they were finishing dinner in the salon. The next, the storm was lashing them furiously.
When the boat broke free and flipped, "I didn't have time to think." He found himself underwater for a full minute or more, "all soaked in diesel" from the spilling tanks. Between the diesel and the salt water, he was blinded.
"I pictured the boat upside down and felt my way out," said Stanley, 29.
He was running out of breath, thinking of his three daughters, when one hand felt the door leading out. His other hand brushed something.
"I felt a hand," Stanley said. So he grabbed it and pulled it out with him. It was attached to a fellow crew member, who also survived.
"All of these crew members were absolutely heroic in their efforts to save people," McLauchlan said.
Peter Hughes, head of Peter Hughes Diving Inc. of Miami, has been among the company's representatives who have been on the scene at Big Creek during the past week.
Hughes and the Wave Dancer's captain, Phillip Martin, were among those who pulled the last victim from the Wave Dancer on Thursday.
A few minutes before the recovery, Hughes sat on a banana pallet, hugging his knees and sobbing.
The bodies of the Richmond victims were flown from Belize on Sunday and have been taken to area funeral homes. (
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Wave Dancer survivors return from Belize
CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
NORFOLK, Virginia, Oct. 11 -- Trapped in the depths of a capsized boat and unable to determine a path to swim to safety, David DeBarger couldn't avoid making a deadly conclusion.
"Is this the way it's going to end?"
DeBarger and other Richmond Dive Club members who survived a disaster that claimed 17 of their colleagues in Belize returned to Virginia late last night.
After arriving at Norfolk International Airport, three of the survivors from the MV Wave Dancer, which was capsized when Hurricane Iris battered the southern coast of Belize late Monday, spoke briefly to reporters.
DeBarger, Mary Lou Hayden and Richard Patterson held hands and fought off tears during their impromptu news conference. DeBarger, creative services director at WCVE/WCVW and vice president of the dive club, did most of the speaking.
"We were on the wrong side of the hurricane," he said, shaking his head, when asked to describe what happened.
DeBarger said that even with an approaching hurricane, everyone felt comfortable on the 120-foot-long Wave Dancer, which was moored in Big Creek port. But once the storm struck, he said, it was just 12-13 seconds before the boat capsized, everything went dark and water surged into the vessel.
DeBarger's initial thought - "I'm not going to die in this boat" - was soon replaced by the sinking feeling that he might be wrong. He swam down a corridor, only to find it led to a dead end.
But suddenly he saw a light in the corridor and swam toward it. It was a flashlight being held by Hayden, who was with Patterson. They were near an emergency exit, which had a window that they kicked out, allowing them to swim to the surface.
They found a life raft on the surface, grabbed it and were immediately blown ashore.
After about 45 minutes in high winds and horizontal rain, they were spotted by the captain of the Belize Aggressor, another dive boat. The captain sent a small motorized landing craft to get them.
Since the storm passed, the three have had time to ponder their fates.
"We wonder about that every moment," Hayden said. "Why are we here and they not? And we miss them terribly."
One they will miss is club president Glenn Prillaman.
Club member David Mowrer said he and Hayden pulled Prillaman to shore and immediately started CPR on him. He was regurgitating water and his pupils were dilated. They worked on him for about 20 minutes.
"We thought we were going to save him but he was already gone," said Mowrer, a 53-year-old diving instructor from Chesterfield County.
Family and friends of Richmond Dive Club members chartered a bus to go to the Norfolk airport and greet the survivors.
On the ride back to Richmond, passengers mostly sat quietly, carrying on intimate conversations between pairs of people.
Lynn McNeal, co-owner of The Dive Shop and club member, went to Norfolk to comfort friends who had survived the ordeal.
"It must have been awful for them to get back on that plane, to know there was 30 going there and only 13 coming back." (Times-Dispatch)
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Peter Hughes Wave Dancer tragedy under investigation
CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
BIG CREEK, Belize, Oct. 12 -- Shortly after lunch yesterday, the owners of the Peter Hughes Wave Dancer climbed through some portside windows to assess damage to their crippled vessel.
What they found was the final victim of the tragedy that claimed 17 members of the Richmond Dive Club in the howling winds of Hurricane Iris on Monday night.
The discovery of the body of Phyllis Cox ended any hope of finding any more survivors from the boat following the worst hurricane to hit Belize in four decades.
Shortly before her body was discovered inside the 120-foot-long dive vessel, searchers found the body of her husband, Doug, in a stand of mangrove trees on shore several hundred yards away from where the crippled Wave Dancer lay after being capsized in the Category 4 hurricane.
The dive expedition firm's supervisors climbed into the boat and brought out the body of Phyllis Cox.
Once both bodies were recovered, men from the British Army's 1st Battalion Devonshire and Dorset regiments prepared them for transport, first to Belize City and eventually back to Richmond.
It was the most gruesome aspect of an unusual mission for the soldiers, who found themselves trucking and boating food and other supplies to villages in the hurricane-damaged area of Belize.
Several soldiers were joined by the supervisors and owners of the Peter Hughes Wave Dancer as they sat with the bodies at the end of a small dirt air strip just outside of the Big Creek port, waiting for a rescue plane from Ruritan International to fly the bodies back to Belize City.
After a 45-minute wait, the plane came and took the bodies away.
The owners and supervisors then returned to the Wave Dancer, where they went back in the boat, toting large plastic bags they used to gather up belongings of the victims.
Investigators for the Belize Maritime Authority and various insurance companies began the task yesterday of trying to determine what went wrong Monday night.
"We're just starting with the investigation right now," said Rafael Oliver, spokesman for the maritime authority. "Until we have some facts, everything else is speculation."
The investigation started with the broken ropes used to tie up the Wave Dancer at Big Creek, one of Belize's main ports. But investigators and insurance adjusters climbed aboard boats and also visited several other boats that had been damaged in the hurricane by a runaway derelict tug, the Miss Pamela.
Initial reports had indicated the Miss Pamela, which was beached nearby before the hurricane, also struck a crushing blow to the Wave Dancer when the storm surge hit the region.
Subsequent information indicates that was not the case.
The Miss Pamela "didn't have anything to do with our damage," said Peter A. McLauchlan, a lawyer representing Adams & Reese, the insurance adjusters with Lloyd's of London.
Investigators focused on the damage to the side of the boat apparently caused when the tidal surge of the hurricane lifted the boat too high for its mooring lines. The left rear portion of the boat apparently was torn wide open.
The insurance company's investigation is incomplete and the maritime investigation is just in its early stages, Oliver said. (Times-Dispatch)
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`Hurricane haven' turned into hurricane hell as Wave Dancer suddenly capsized
CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
BIG CREEK, Belize, Oct. 12 -- Sunday was perfect - great weather and friends and five unbelievable dives into Black Beauty and the Front Porch, two exotic reef areas off Belize that draw experienced divers from around the world.
They squeezed in as much fun as they could, knowing Monday's skies would be stormy.
Don Trice was one of 30 members of the Richmond Dive Club circling the waters of Belize early this week.
Late Wednesday, he was one of only 13 who returned - one of 13 who tried to rescue fellow dive buddies in the wake of the most intense storm any of them had ever seen. "After the eye of the storm had passed, we all went upstairs and looked for our friends on the other boat. That's when we saw - the Wave Dancer had capsized," he said. "We had to move."
A cool breeze settled over Big Creek on Monday morning when the Belize Aggressor docked. On board, 10 Richmonders and six other divers waited for their 20 friends on the MV Wave Dancer.
At that time, Hurricane Iris was believed to be headed toward Jamaica. The captains of both live-aboard boats knew the storm was just around the corner and decided the bay, about 80 miles south of Belize City, would be the best place to ride it out.
"The captain called it 'Hurricane Haven,'" Trice said.
The wind picked up.
A few Aggressor passengers got off the boat and walked around the dock until the Wave Dancer pulled up at 3 p.m. The boat moored behind the Aggressor, leaving the Wave Dancer more vulnerable if the storm should hit.
The Aggressor passengers returned to their boat and relaxed with James Bond movies until dinner was ready.
That's when reports began trickling in that the storm was, once again, headed toward Belize City. About a dozen other boats docked around them. One sought shelter in the thick mangroves lining the bay.
"No one seemed to really be concerned at that point," Trice said. "We were all happy and not too scared, but it didn't take too long before people started to panic."
The Aggressor divers ate tacos and fajitas, but most people didn't drink alcohol because they wanted to be ready in case of emergency. They prepared a mental list of the supplies they would need.
"The captain was keeping us posted just in case we needed to evacuate," Trice said. "They wanted us to have something packed - shoes, flashlights, dive knives - the bare necessities."
David Mowrer kept order among the divers. The 53-year-old former businessman, a diving instructor, had a plan.
"He told us to wear tennis shoes or boots, not sandals, because if we had to jump out, we needed to have good footing," Trice said. "Otherwise, you're basically barefoot the whole trip."
Meanwhile, the Wave Dancer passengers were eating a later dinner, at about 7 p.m., when debris began whipping through the air.
"We saw the rain coming and we knew it was about to hit," Mowrer said.
Everyone on the Aggressor stood on the deck as trees flattened near them and large, unrecognizable objects flew at them. They had docked next to a banana warehouse, and Mowrer asked workers to move dozens of pallets that were stacked outside, afraid the storm winds would toss them toward the two dive boats.
Passengers from both ships moved to the cabins below.
"It was so dark and you couldn't hear a thing. We were screaming at each other to make sure everybody had a life vest on and a flashlight in hand," Trice said. "From one end of the hall to the other, you couldn't hear a word. We stayed very still."
Some time after 8, the Aggressor divers heard a loud noise and thought it was a large piece of flying debris. It was the Wave Dancer - ripped free from its mooring lines by Iris' winds - smashing into their boat.
Minutes later, the storm lifted the Wave Dancer into the air and smashed it back into the water.
Mowrer was the first to climb to the main deck and survey the scene.
"Dave was so calm. He just came back down below and told everyone we needed to get moving," Trice said.
Mowrer, Trice and several others mobilized quickly.
"We had the Wave Dancer behind us, protecting us, as well as a tug boat and a building," Trice said. "They didn't have a thing."
Mowrer and Rob Salvatori, another Aggressor diver, paddled a dinghy around the bay to pick up Wave Dancer passengers floating in the water. They picked up the three survivors and three victims, including club president and founder Glenn Prillaman.
Mowrer and others tried for about 20 minutes to resuscitate Prillaman. They could not.
Seventeen of the 20 Wave Dancer passengers - all Richmond Dive Club members - were killed. Two of its five crew members also were killed.
The 10 club members on the Aggressor all made it.
"I put on my gear and tried to save as many people as I could," Mowrer said. "I found two crew members, three other people, but they were all bodies. No one was alive." (Times-Dispatch)
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Remains of Wave Dancer dead expected soon
CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
BIG CREEK, Belize, Oct. 12 -- The bodies of 17 Richmond Dive Club members killed Monday by Hurricane Iris along the coast of Belize will be sent back to the United States for autopsies as early as today.
Cpl. Fernando Rosado, of the Belize City Police Department, said plans are in the works to charter a private plane to bring the victims back as quickly as possible, though it could be a few days.
"The doctor is looking at the bodies at this moment. A death certificate will be issued for each of the bodies . . . but a real autopsy will not be conducted [in Belize]," he said.
The American embassy in Belize is coordinating with the medical examiner to arrange shipment of the bodies back to the United States, said Christopher Lamora, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs.
Before that happens, the bureau must issue a mortuary certificate to U.S. Customs.
The medical examiner in Belize has preliminarily determined that all the victims aboard the Wave Dancer died by drowning, said Louis Belisle, an undertaker assisting with the victims.
Belisle said he was waiting yesterday afternoon for caskets to arrive. It was unclear who would be sending the caskets, but Belisle said he was working with the U.S. Embassy in Belize.
"We want to send the bodies home as soon as possible," he said.
Belisle, who is assisting the local Belize medical examiner, said the victims are located at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital morgue in Belize City. He did not know how many were crew and how many were divers.
"We are doing as much as we can to clean the bodies and preserve them," he said. "But we will not be conducting any autopsies."
Lynn McNeal, co-owner of The Dive Shop on West Broad Street in Richmond, has been providing support to the families of divers. She said the club has received only sketchy reports about the bodies and when they will return. The latest news was that all the Richmond divers' bodies would be flown back to Virginia on Monday, she said.
Peter Kirkham's niece, Cheryl Lightbound, was one of the storm victims. She lived in Richmond, but Kirkham and the rest of Lightbound's family are in Calgary, Canada.
They have had trouble getting information about when her body will be returned.
"We would like to have the body transferred to Calgary, but I don't know if it's going to go directly or through Richmond or what," he said in a phone interview. "No one is telling us." (Times-Dispatch)
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Wave Dancer crew ignored repeated warnings to move guests to land-based shelter
CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
BELIZE CITY, Belize, Oct. 11 -- Hurricane Iris, the worst Belize has seen since 1961, slammed into the coast 80 miles south of Belize City killing 19 people, all of them aboard the Peter Hughes liveaboard, Wave Dancer.
In the wake of the deaths, many are criticizing the crew's decision to stay aboard the vessel despite a powerful and deadly Category 4 hurricane bearing down on Big Creek where Wave Dancer was moored.
Patricia Rose, spokesperson for Peter Hughes Diving in Miami, denied the crew had any choice stating, " we could not put the guests in a hotel. We were forced to keep them on the boat," she added.
But other emergency facilities were available and locals repeatedly warned boat crews to get their passengers off the boats and take shelter in local facilities.
"My home and supermarket are built of masonry and I opened them up to everyone who needed emergency shelter," said Tony Zabaneh, chairman of Independence, a town located just north of Big Creek. "More than 400 people were sheltered here when the hurricane hit us and it hit hard, more like a tornado than a hurricane."
"We made three trips with a van and pickup truck down to Big Creek to warn the people onboard the dive boats," Zabaneh said. "But they refused to get off the boats."
One of the biggest threats from hurricanes is storm surge caused when high winds push powerful walls of water and huge battering waves ahead of the storm. It's the water, not the wind that often destroys moorages, boats and other facilities at the shore's edge.
"Guests on those big dive boats expect to be pampered so my guess is that the crew did not want to subject them to a night with hundreds of locals at the town supermarket," said George Thomas, a charter yacht owner. "But when hurricanes are coming at you, you have to trash the itinerary and get them to the safest place available. The worst possible place to be during a hurricane is on a boat."
According to some reports, a tugboat collided with Wave Dancer but Zabaneh believes that the Wave Dancer crew tied the boat too close to the dock, which put too much stress on the mooring cleats.
"Once those cleats broke loose and the boat spun away from the dock, she was finished," said Zabaneh.
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Aerial view of motor vessel, Wave Dancer, a 120-ft U.S.-chartered tourist boat that was destroyed at Big Creek by Hurricane Iris on October 8, 2001, 21 years ago. Reports are that during this Category 4 storm, the boat, which had docked at Big Creek to shelter from the storm, was yanked into the air by the force of the wind and waves, and flipped. All 17 persons aboard perished. The local workers who had refused to remain onboard to shelter from the storm even when their job was threatened, had their lives spared.
Photos courtesy Jeremy A. Enriquez