Hidden Valley Inn: we all made it through the night, we will have alot of clean up work today. We lost an old mango tree at the staff quarters and our ripe grapefruits, well, we expect they will be popping up in weird and wonderful places Thank you everyone for your thoughts and well wishes!

Richard weakens to a tropical storm over Guatemala
Reuters

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Richard was downgraded to a tropical storm on Monday as it moved across northern Guatemala and southeastern Mexico after battering Belize.

The storm was expected to further weaken to a tropical depression before it enters Mexico's Bay of Campeche on Monday night or early Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said. The bay produces more than two-thirds of Mexico's 2.6 million barrels-per-day of crude output.

The storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour (105 kph), was centred about 170 miles (275 km) southeast of Campeche, Mexico, at 4 a.m. CDT (10 a.m. British time). It was moving west-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph).

The storm would likely not strengthen again once it enters the Gulf of Mexico at the Bay of Campeche, the Miami-based hurricane centre said.

Mexico's state oil company, Pemex, said it was watching the storm but had not evacuated any workers from its offshore platforms. Vessels continued to service the platforms late into Sunday night, Pemex said.

"We're still operating normally and monitoring (the storm)," a Pemex spokesman said.

In September, Hurricane Karl forced a brief shutdown of 14 minor Mexican wells in the Gulf, with no significant impact on production.

Most computer forecasting models suggest the storm would steer clear of major oil installations in the U.S. Gulf.

Richard is expected to produce 3 to 6 inches (8-15 cm) of rain across northern Guatemala and the Mexican states of Quintana Roo and Campeche, the hurricane centre said.

Richard made landfall on Sunday just south of Belize City, blowing roofs off houses and knocking out electricity as tourists and residents huddled in emergency shelters.

The government of Belize, an impoverished country of about 330,000 people, reported no injuries or deaths from the storm, which came ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest rank on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale.

It forced families to flee their houses and move into shelters along the coast, said Noreen Fairweather, coordinator of the country's emergency services organisation.

NO MAJOR DAMAGE

She said no major damage had been reported beyond broken windows and roofs blown off a few poorly constructed homes.

"Our windows are shuttered so we can't see anything, but the wind is howling fiercely," said Myrna Harris, who moved all her guests and furniture to the second floor of the hotel she runs in Belize City.

Heavy winds doubled over palm trees on Belize's coast, webcam images showed, and residents called a local radio station to report power outages and plead for help as rivers quickly rose.

Before the storm touched land, hotels across southern Belize sent foreign travellers to inland shelters, the national tourism board said.

Belize, a former British colony, is a popular destination for foreign tourists who are drawn to its lush jungles, palm-fringed cays and coral reef.

Richard threatened to cause floods and mudslides as it crossed through northern Guatemala, though the head of the country's coffee growers' association said the coffee crop would probably not be affected.

Mexico evacuated residents from Mayan villages on the Yucatan peninsula where many of the poor live in thatched huts.

Richard knocked down trees and power lines on the islands off Honduras' north coast, whose white sandy beaches are popular with foreign tourists.

Honduras' coffee crop will likely not be affected by the storm, said Dagoberto Suazo, a board member of the country's national coffee institute.

Honduran authorities said electricity had been knocked out in some areas and mudslides had cut off dozens of villages.

"Thank God we don't have any serious damage or deaths or injuries," said Lizandro Rosales, head of Honduras' emergency services committee.

Richard was the 10th hurricane of the busy 2010 Atlantic storm season. Five of those hurricanes have been major, but the United States has escaped a significant landfall so far.

(Writing and additional reporting by Jason Lange in Mexico City; Further reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa, Miguel Angel Gutierrez and Robert Campbell in Mexico City and Sarah Grainger in Guatemala City; Editing by Eric Beech)

Here is a morning after shot from 6am North Ambergris Caye

Weakened 'Richard' leaves Belize
(UKPA) – 2 hours ago

Hurricane Richard has weakened to a tropical storm over north-eastern Guatemala after battering the tiny Central American country of Belize with heavy rain and howling winds.

The storm's maximum sustained winds early on Monday were near 65mph with steady weakening expected as Richard stays inland.

Mexico has discontinued all coastal warnings for that country.

The storm is located about 90 miles west of Belize City and is moving west to north-west at about 12 mph.

An estimated 10,000 people in Belize took refuge at storm shelters in schools and churches ahead of the arrival of Richard, which made landfall late on Sunday about 20 miles south-west of Belize City.

Amazing how we dodged yet another bullet. I was able to sit outside on the deck all during the evening and up until bedtime. we had only mild winds here although the sea roared.

Anyone know how the power/internet situation is in Placencia?

here's a report from Cayo....

getting the cattle out of the yard! many fences down, some trees pruned by the master, leaf city in yard, and now the lovely nelores are in the yard, nick loves it. will see who shows up for work, keeping us all young here. have not checked your cacao cathedral along the river derry... think the big trees, the giant cedars ok there too, are ok here, but there was some cracking and popping in the night.

for my part, i was doing emails about 9(?) telling folks we are fine, then power out, climbed under the table to stop that beeping on ups, when came up totally disoriented ! had pulled down drapes, plus not much moon early in evening... and then the overcast too... luckily some in back of house came to rescue me before i banged into too much. remember there are 7 directions, the 4 cardinals, plus up, down and inward. i was a bit confused on all 7 counts, haha.

john is just back from barn.. we rose together at dawn, to survey what we could.. we are thankful. spoke to jenny down south, doc - she says of 10, they are nearly 10 still. bmp was hit badly, understand that many trees down, no water in san ig, or elec. we are on generator, thank you fossil fuels.

roads are completely blocked up, the cristo rey road, imagine more blocked in town too, heard that western hwy blocked too... so, will be loss for some, profit for some, cleaning up, etc.
wondering how the mennonites fared with the rest of the corn harvest, if they got it in first.

our rain guage says 3 inches, because i think it only collects VERTICAL rain, not the slant or horozontal. will get the rain amt from the guys that supply us records in spanish lkt. today. (if their e is on... expect it will be,) that side of the river used to independent days, as are we. just not set up for it like in the old maya ranch days...
we got into wasps, using ammonia on the stings - we were crossing/clearing/chopping with his machete, the stuff blocking roads in the ranch. forever young, my man. or so he feels.

so don't worry, we are fine! having roast picana for dinner... hope the elec returns so we don't have to clean out the freezer, but we will be fine. (generator too tiny )
sun is out, and we are dry and thankful. dalia just phoned (housekeeper) tree fell on her mother's house in cristo rey, nearly totaled, wood hse. says overall village is fine.

Black Rock, Hidden Valley, DuPlooys, reporting no damage, couple trees down.

love and good wishes to all !

All Clear of Hurricane Richard

The sun is out in San Pedro and residents get ready to go back to work and on with their regular lives after Hurricane Richard made landfall in the country of Belize last night between Dangriga Town and Belize City. The only work being done in the island is beach cleanup for all the seaweed that was dumped on the beaches; the town council and residents along the beach have already started with the cleanup.  No damage to buildings, piers and other structures has been reported.

Misc. reports:

I was listening to Love FM online last night and frequent calls were coming in to the radio station of people needing rescue. Mind you, this was all happening in the pitch black of night because there was no power. Several calls were of rising water of four feet in lower level houses where children were. One caller was calling on behalf of her neighbor who lived on the seafront on the South side somewhere. Apparently the water had risen so high the mother had to break a hole in the roof and put her children to sit on the roof of the house as they awaited rescue. Remember, this is in the pitch black of night, with howling winds. The caller didn't say how old the children were but it was definitely the sound of a panicked caller.

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Copy from Elite Trader

Belize 7:30 a.m. Monday for North American Stock markets opening, on this Monday morning.

HURRICANE RICHARD went through here last night. Hit the coast at a Force 2, and passed over us a 100 miles inland at Force 1. Bit of debris around today. The electricity has been off since yesterday evening. Running the computer on battery backup power and can only hope the electricity comes back on in the next hour. Of two internet providers, BTL is off the connection, but SMART is still operating and so we are able to continue business. Had been thinking of cashing in my SMART and cancelling it. But guess I will keep it as a backup, which it is right now.
See the market jumped at the OPEN, that is interesting. Hoping for two trades again this week.
My breadfruit tree lost some big branches and most of the flowering shrubs lost their flowers. Otherwise okay!

3 hours of Force 1 hurricane winds.

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Foreshore had about 4 feet according to sister(receded now)......no power and still raining at 6am this morning....apparently lots of power poles down...

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Just talked to my mom. She said the water was already down and they have power. She's on the south side at West & Bishop streets.