RECALLING MY HURRICANE GRETA EXPERIENCE 1978
by Albert Avila

As a kid, I grew up near the Haulover Creek next to where the Belchina bridge is located. There were many things I saw in the creek while living along that creek. One of the beautiful things from our vantage point was how the rivter changed throughout the year. Lots of people don’t get to see that. Some months it would be black, dead, and ugly and other months it would come alive and look emerald green and beautiful. One of the things I remember seeing was the body of a dead man floating in the river among my uncles' fishing boats. Since my bedroom faced the creek, one of the first things I did in the morning was to look through my window at the creek. One morning there it was. Apparently, it was a man that suffered from epilepsy and had fallen in the river and drown. That was the story I heard.

We don’t hear much about hurricane Fifi and Greta and I believe that is because they did not cause much damage in Belize. I guess if Belize City was not damaged, we tend to forget about it. Who remembers the other hurricane that struct Belize in 1961? Greta lambasted Dangriga. Somehow it looks as though if hurricanes don’t hit Belize City, they tend to hit Dangriga and then we forget about them.

Living by the creek was sort of exciting for me as a young boy as the City prepared for an approaching storm. I can recall the commotion with Fifi in 1974 a little but was old enough to remember Gretta more vividly in 1978. I was twelve at the time. One of the things I found exciting when a hurricane was approaching Belize was looking at all of the boats coming into the creek to take refuge from the hurricane. All kinds of boats came in, large ones and small ones. It was like a parade for boats.

In 1978, my uncle was employed at Barclays Bank. The plan was for our family was to take refuge in Barclays Bank. Down below in this post (ABOUT GRETA), you will read about a tornado that hit Belize City just before Gretta arrived. Well, I saw that tornado first hand. Here is my experience. It all happened when we were about to leave our house to go to Barclays. Our front door faced the north, so when you came out of our front door you would see the northside approach to the Belchina Bridge. At that time, Belchina Bridge was not there yet only an empty lot with an old dilapidated house and then Dr. Gordillo’s house at the end bordering North Front Street. The property after the empty lot going north was a sawmill/lumberyard facility. I think it may have been owned by the Loskot family. I would estimate the lumberyard was about seventy feet away from our house. As we opened our door to leave our house, about two seconds later, we saw the structures in the lumberyard went up about a hundred feet into the air and broke into a million pieces. We could not move as we all looked at this incident unfolding in front of our eyes. It lasted only for a few seconds. After a few seconds, all that went up fell back down to the ground and the sky immediately above the lumberyard was black the way it looked when a thunderstorm is approaching. As quickly as it had started it was over. I have always seen in the movies when tornadoes approaching, the winds would gradually pick-up, and then reduce as the tornado moves away. In our experience, there was no wind before or after. It just happened suddenly and disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. Before the tornado incident, we were sort of casual as we were preparing to leave our house. I think we were debating whether we should leave or not. After the incident, I would describe it as ‘weh foot mek fah’. We got out of our house really fast after that. We didn’t need much encouragement after that. Later, after Greta had passed, we learnt that it was a tornado that struck the city and destroyed four houses north of Douglas Jones along North Front Street including turning over a dump truck.

While at Barclays Bank, I don’t recall anything much about Gretta. I believe it hit Belize with about 50 to 60 miles an hour winds, but in Barclays, you did not hear anything. I only saw the trees in Battlefield Park shaking in the wind and I could see the roof of Hofius moving slightly up and down in the wind. I remember my mother who had lived through Hattie saying that the water will soon come. I never saw any of the water. By the time we existed Barclay’s Bank the next day, the water had already receded. However, I knew there was water because when we returned home, the watermark on the house was about four feet high. Our backyard was filled with mud about three inches thick and there were lots of eel looking things about twelve to sixteen inches long in the mud. I had never seen those creatures in all my life living next to the creek and I never saw them again after Greta.



ABOUT GRETA

Hurricane Greta, later Hurricane Olivia, was one of ten named Atlantic hurricanes to cross over Central America into the eastern Pacific while remaining a tropical cyclone. The seventh named storm of the 1978 Atlantic hurricane season, Greta formed from a tropical wave just northwest of Trinidad on September 13, and despite being in a climatologically unfavorable area, gradually intensified while moving west-northwestward. On September 16, it became a hurricane south of Jamaica. Two days later, the well-defined eye approached northeastern Honduras but veered to the northwest. After reaching peak winds of 130 mph (215 km/h) that day, Greta weakened while paralleling the northern Honduras coast just offshore. On September 19, it made landfall on Belize near Dangriga

At Greta's final landfall in Belize, the highest sustained winds were 55 mph (89 km/h) in Belize City, with gusts to 115 mph (185 km/h) at Dangriga near the landfall location. On the offshore Ambergris Caye, winds reached 60 mph (97 km/h), and there was heavy rainfall. On Half Moon Caye, the hurricane damaged the base of a lighthouse and knocked over several coconut trees.[23] Along the Belize Barrier Reef, the hurricane downed palm trees and produced high waves, with significant wave heights of about 33 ft (10 m) along Carrie Bow Caye. On the mainland, storm tides in Dangriga were 6 to 7 ft (1.8 to 2.1 m) above normal, which did not cause much flooding. The strong winds destroyed 50 houses there and unroofed a further 75, including damage to the hospital. There were also disruptions to power and water service. About 90% of the grapefruit crop was destroyed, and 50% of the orange crop was lost. Tides were 2 to 4 ft (0.61 to 1.22 m) above normal in Belize City,[9] which caused flooding in conjunction with swollen rivers. The United States embassy was flooded with about one foot of mud. There was little damage in the city, although a tornado in Belize City that damaged four houses and flipped over a truck. During the storm, the Belize International Airport was closed. Farther inland, strong winds caused heavy damage at Guanacaste National Park. Damage throughout Belize was estimated at $25 million (1978 USD), and there were four deaths. Three of the deaths were on offshore islands in areas without radios, and the other was due to electrocution.

Source: Hurricane information from Wikipedia

Here's a photo of Liberty Hall and surrounding area after Hurricane Greta in 1978.
https://ambergriscaye.com/photogallery/170418.html



Alan Jackson
I spent the night at Airport Camp and drove back to the city just after daybreak. I remember seeing some damaged houses/buildings along Haulover Creek just as you described, Albert. I was boarding with a family on Euphrates Avenue and the lower floor of their house had an inch or two of mud after a foot of water receded. The city reeked of fetid mud for many days. The below photo shows the storm warning flag above the Courthouse Sunday morning before Greta.



Thomas Tate
I was 10 years old when Greta hit Belize. I remember my family took shelter at one of officer's quarters at the Lynam prison. My dad worked at Recondev at the time and he was responsible for the housing rehabilitation program in the Stann Creek District including Gales Point.

Colin Gillett
When Hurricane Greta hit Belize City my mom and my two sisters were in shelter at the church corner Mex Ave and Fairweather St. We were living across from Bismark Club in Yabra next to the parking lot is now where a two story grey house is now. The house a wooden elevated about 4 feet the storm surge floaded it into Bismark Club intact. When morning came a thieve was caught taking our recently filled 100 pound cylinder gas tank. My mom shouted at him and I ran him down with a machete the tank fell from off his shoulders as he ran and fell on the valve. As I went to close the valve the butane fumes got me dizzy and I fainted. A lady wet my head and I revived. Later in the afternoon the late Rt Hon George Price came around offering people keys to new houses in Ladyville but my mom declined the offer saying she is from Belize City. My mom wash out the mud from the clothes in the clear water in the drain. There was lots of mud and the air was renk with dead fish and sea weed everywhere. We ended up living at Hunters Lane next to my aunt.

Pamela Robateau Crone
In both these hurricanes, our home got flooded. Our dad bundled us off in the Sabre, and we floated and poled down the Belize river, and took refuge at Barothy Farms. We only came back to clean up the mess. Lots of fun experiences.

Lyssis Alini Windsor
I remember hiding the whole while under the kitchen bench. I was living in Spanish Lookout. We all piled in the kitchen. We had a great corn crop damage. And the river swept the ferry all the way to Roaring Creek. We had to Cross the river in motor boats for a long time till that ferry came back.

George Ivan Sosa
What I can remember of Hurricane Greta was me and my bros assisting my Father in cleaning out piles of black/grey stinky mud from our grocery store on Water Lane. I think Greta could be called the “stinky mud” hurricane .

by Alan Jackson

I was a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to the Fisheries Unit Laboratory in Belize City from August 1976 to October 1978. Initially I lived in a boarding house on Prince Street during a four-week Peace Corps orientation. After that I was expected to find my own housing. Most PCVs in Belize City doubled or tripled up and shared flats wherever they could find reasonable rent. I had heard good things about a family that had just hosted two PCVs during our orientation weeks. One of those PCVs decided to continue boarding with that family while the other was moving to his jobsite in San Antonio, Toledo. I asked the family if I could board with them, and they welcomed me into their home. They were a young and charming couple with two daughters, 3 and 5 years old. They had recently moved into a large, two-story cement house on Euphrates Avenue between King and Dean streets. I stayed with them for the rest of my two years in Belize.

I woke up early on the morning of Sunday, September 17, 1978, and thought briefly about the impending danger of Hurricane Greta. I quickly wrote my weekly letter home. Instead of keeping a journal, I took time every Sunday morning, while still in bed, to write to my parents back in Southern California about the events of the preceding week. I knew that my mother would be saving these letters and that I would have them later to help me remember my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Belize. I folded, addressed, and sealed the pale blue aerogram, got dressed, slipped the aerogram into my pants pocket and went downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast, I left the house through the front door and stepped out onto Euphrates Avenue. Our house stood right on the edge of this busy street. There was no setback or front yard. Once I stepped out of the house through that front door in the morning, I was immediately thrust into the community.

Euphrates Avenue was a wide street, by Belizean standards, that ran north and south and funneled Southside Belize City traffic to the Western Highway as well as toward Swing Bridge and the Northside. There was an eclectic mix of ramshackle houses, shops, bars and churches packed tightly along both sides of the street. Immediately across the street from our house was a small, unnamed shop that sold canned goods, rice, dry beans, seasonings, ham and Dutch cheese by the slice, mosquito repellent and, most importantly for me, 16-ounce bottles of ice-cold Coca Cola. This was the kind of neighborhood shop, common in Belize City, that was too small to allow customers to enter. Instead, people were served over a counter that was open to the street or sidewalk. Customers would walk up to the counter and tell the shopkeeper what they wanted to buy. One or two cents change due on a purchase was settled by using penny candy instead of coins. The proprietor of the shop across the street from our house was Don Salva. Don Salva sat on a chair just behind the counter and waited for his customers. He had a tabletop electric fan and a radio tuned to Radio Belize, the country’s only station. Don Salva, a heavyset, balding mestizo, who was always dressed in a white cotton undershirt and khaki pants, lived upstairs of his small shop. I wish I had gotten to know Don Salva better during the two years that I lived across the street from him, but he was not a talkative person, and neither was I.

Two doors up from our house, and on the same side of the street, was the Haven Club. The Haven Club occupied the upper floor of a two-story building. Downstairs was a Cuello Brothers rum distributorship. The Haven Club was a quiet neighborhood bar from Sunday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturday nights, however, the place came alive. On those nights, the most popular bands in the city played there. My bedroom window opened onto the Haven Club. At that time almost no home or business had air conditioning, so on those hot, humid nights every window in the city was wide open. That meant that I could hear music coming out of the Haven Club as clearly and as loudly as if I were listening to recorded music at full volume in my own bedroom. I became so familiar with each band’s set list that I knew which song would be played next.

Hurricane Greta was tracking toward Belize, and I would have to report to the Fisheries Unit Laboratory later in the day to help prepare for it. In the meantime, I had arranged to meet fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Matt Connor that morning to walk with me around the city and shoot some photographs. Matt had a high-quality Nikon camera and he had agreed that, if I supplied the film, he would take the pictures. My two years in Belize would be ending in three weeks, and I wanted to get a few more pictures of the city before I left.

Matt was a memorable character. He was funny, outgoing, good-looking and smart. He was also a stylish dresser and stood out from the rest of us Peace Corps Volunteers by wearing crisply starched and ironed button up shirts instead of the de facto Peace Corps “uniform” of faded tee shirts and jeans. Soon after arriving in Belize, Matt began dating the daughter of his host family and bought an old car to drive her to and from work. He was the only Volunteer who had his own car, which was strictly against Peace Corps policy. Matt had previously been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malaysia but was abruptly reassigned to Belize for reasons left only to our speculation.

Neither Matt nor I had enough money to buy gas for his car, so we agreed to meet on the edge of town at the Fisheries Unit Laboratory on Princess Margaret Drive, and we would start our photo shoot on foot from there. It was a beautiful morning with a powder blue sky splotched with large white clouds, and there was a light breeze coming out of the north. I did not mind the 30-minute walk to meet Matt.

From Euphrates Avenue I turned right onto King Street, crossed over the canal where I noticed a young girl emptying a white enameled bucket, walked past Dit’s restaurant and Pino’s barbershop and then turned left onto Albert Street. As I crossed Swing Bridge over Haulover Creek, I could smell the sea and feel the air temperature drop a couple of degrees. I always looked forward to the small respite from the tropical heat that Haulover Creek provided. I crossed North Front Street to the post office where there were two poor souls in the sheltered entrance sleeping off their Saturday night bender of cheap rum. I dropped my aerogram in the mail slot and continued down Queen Street. At the Majestic Theater I turned left onto Barrack Road and in less than ten minutes I was at the seafront and felt its cooling breeze. It was just a short and pleasant walk along the water’s edge from there to Fisheries. I could see that Matt was already there, sitting on the front steps waiting for me.

After quickly exchanging greetings, Matt and I left the Fisheries compound and walked south along Barrack Road back toward town. We stopped to take pictures of Sea View Hospital, the Gahne Town Clock on Barrack Road, Her Majesty’s Prison on Gaol Lane, St. Catherine Convent and the U.S. Consulate on Gabourel Lane, the Peace Corps Office on Cork Street, the Paslow Building, the Price home on Pickstock Street, Holy Redeemer Cathedral, Swing Bridge and the Old Market. At Market Square, Matt pointed to the large, revolving Coca Cola clock and ranted about the crassness of American consumerism and how Madison Avenue logos and symbols are defiling the Third World.



We walked 100 yards or so along Regent Street from the Coca Cola clock to the Courthouse, a two-story, cupula-topped structure with a grand outdoors staircase and ornate ironwork. There were two bedraggled creole men standing in the shade cast by the staircase, their filthy bedding unfurled on the ground beside them. Looking up, we saw a single red flag flying high above the Courthouse signaling that Belize City was now officially under a hurricane watch. Both Regent and Albert streets in the commercial heart of the Old Capital were nearly deserted, which was not unusual for an early Sunday morning. The stillness of the city, combined with the sight of the red hurricane watch flag, gave us an ominous feeling, and we decided to end our photo shoot early. I needed to report to Fisheries in an hour or so, anyway, to help with hurricane preparations.

Bulletins on the status of Hurricane Greta were being issued every 15 minutes over Radio Belize even though the underlying information coming from the U.S. National Hurricane Center was only being updated at two-hour intervals. The latest bulletin indicated that Hurricane Greta was moving west-northwest just off the coast of Honduras at 12 to 15 miles per hour toward Belize. Winston Miller, the Fisheries Administrator, had left the country two days earlier for meetings in Washington, D.C. Before he left, he put Senior Fisheries Officer Janet Gibson in charge.

Janet called the Fisheries staff in to work at noon. She outlined what we would have to do to be ready for Greta. The Fisheries Laboratory stood just 50 feet from the water’s edge and was susceptible to a storm surge. We all pitched in and put up the storm shutters on the windows. Even though there were about 30 windows the task was not too difficult because each window was clearly numbered and matched to a numbered shutter. We cleared off desktops and filed away our paperwork. We knew where the roof leaked, so we placed pigtail buckets under those spots. We looked around the yard and secured or brought inside anything that might be swept away in the storm. We pulled the two wooden skiffs up into the yard as far as we could.

Authorities had recently seized two Honduran sloop-rigged smacks that were caught fishing illegally in Belizean waters. These two sailboats were being temporarily moored behind Fisheries alongside our research vessel, the Panulirus Argus. Our boat captain, Romie Badillo, was in Canada taking a course in advanced ship handling and navigation, so Janet arranged for a boat captain from the Customs Department to take all three vessels up Haulover Creek and beyond Swing Bridge to safety. The plan was to have the captain from Customs pilot the Panulirus Argus and tow the two sailboats behind. I would be at the tiller of one of the sailboats and Dwight Neal would be at the tiller of the other. Neither Dwight nor I was an experienced boatman, so this was bound to be a tricky operation.

About 2:00 in the afternoon the boat captain from Customs arrived and started up the engine on the Panulirus Argus. Dwight and I untethered the two sailboats from their moorings, secured a towline between them and another to the stern of the Panulirus Argus. The captain released the Panulirus Argus’s mooring line, shifted out of neutral and pulled ahead slowly. The slack went out of the towlines with a sudden jerk. Like a mother duck leading her two ducklings, we slowly made our way to the mouth of the harbor, a distance of two miles.

As we rounded Fort Point and entered the harbor, we could see boats stacked up five and six abreast waiting for the bridge to swing open. After a lot of jostling and maneuvering we took our place among the other boats. Despite the incidental bumping and scraping of boat against boat, no one seemed vexed. There was a kind of camaraderie among the boatmen as though we were all in this together. The bridge swung open and we joined the parade of boats squeezing between the bridge and the concrete river embankment. We finally secured the three boats a short distance up the river at the Davis boatyard, and my workday was done.

The next morning, Monday, I reported back to work at Fisheries. My means of transportation to and from work changed over the course of my two years in Belize. All Peace Corps Volunteers stationed in Belize City were given a new Raleigh bicycle. A bicycle is an excellent means of transportation in Belize City because the landscape is perfectly flat, and you can easily bike across town in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, my bicycle was stolen within the first few months and was never recovered. Soon after my bicycle was stolen, I was given permission to drive the Fisheries Land Rover to and from work. This was a fine arrangement for a few weeks until the Land Rover was sent to Dangriga for major repairs and remained there for many months. The Forestry Department maintained a small staff at the Fisheries Laboratory, and its secretary, Desiree Leslie, lived on King Street just around the corner from me. She was given a ride to work each day by her boss, Lionel Gentle, in the Forestry Land Rover pickup truck. I found that I could wait at Desiree’s front gate for Mr. Gentle to show up and then jump in the back of the pickup while Desiree rode up front with Mr. Gentle. That arrangement lasted until I left Belize. I slowly graduated from waiting at Desiree’s front gate, to waiting on her verandah, to sitting in her parlor, to taking tea and chatting with the family. They were genuinely nice people.

I arrived at Fisheries and helped with a thorough, last minute inspection of the laboratory and grounds. At about 9:00 Janet dismissed the staff so that they could be with their families and prepare their homes for the hurricane or head to the shelters that would open at noon. Janet asked me, however, because I had no home or family in Belize, to remain at Fisheries. My job would be to maintain VHF radio contact with the Forestry Office at Augustine and then, before the Northern Road became impassable, to drive the Fisheries Land Rover to the Belize International Airport where it would be safe from coastal flooding. I considered my host family as my actual family, and I was devoted to them. I was tempted to tell Janet that I really should go home to help them prepare instead of taking care of Fisheries. But, really, Janet was in a bind, and I felt obliged to help.

By mid-afternoon, the breeze was picking up, and around 4:00 it started to rain. The yard in front was filling with water, and waves were dashing up against the planking of the little pier in the back. Sunset would not be until 5:50 but the sky already seemed to be darkening. At 5:00 I contacted Augustine Forestry Station to let them know that I was about to shut down the radio and take the Land Rover to the airport. The two-lane Northern Road to the airport was paved, but it was without shoulders, center striping or warning signs. For most of the eight miles to the airport it ran through open landscape, but large trees did line the road in some areas. And for three miles the road ran perilously close to the Belize River.

I jumped in the Land Rover and started to drive out of the Fisheries compound. I immediately had a sinking feeling that maybe I was leaving for higher ground a little too late. I wasn’t sure that I would be able to make it to the airport before the Northern Road flooded, especially along the stretch just north of Haulover Bridge where the distance between the Belize River and the Caribbean Sea is only about a hundred yards.

To my relief, the drive to the airport was without incident. The water had not yet risen much, although there were five or six inches of water in some areas. Otherwise, the road was clear with just a small amount of tree branch and leaf litter on it. At the airport I parked and locked up the Land Rover. Then I started to wonder, “Now what am I supposed to do?” Funny, but that was the first time I had even thought about having to spend the night alone at the airport. I really wanted to go back home and be with my host family. I knew that they could use my help, especially with lifting heavy items up off the downstairs floor.

It was now dark, and the wind was gusting strongly. I looked around the airport grounds and noticed that someone had just turned on the headlights of a red and white pickup truck and was getting ready to leave the airport. I flagged the truck down and asked the driver where he was going. He told me that he was hoping to make it back to Belize City. I noticed two other people with the driver in the cab. I asked if I could get a ride, and he told me to hop into the back. I got into the truck bed and tapped on the top of the cab, “Let’s go!”

The pickup truck headed out of the airport grounds and toward the Northern Road. I hunkered down in the bed and leaned up against the cab. Just then it began to rain. I was wearing only a tee shirt and jeans and did not have a jacket with me. We turned onto the Northern Road and began to make our way toward the city. Almost immediately I realized that the odds of making it to Belize City were not good. I did not know it at the time, but Hurricane Greta had just come ashore about 20 miles to the south.

It was now raining harder, and I was thoroughly soaked and becoming cold. Within a mile we encountered 12 to 18 inches of water on the road. We pressed slowly on, dodging what looked like the deepest water and hoping for the best. Somewhere just before reaching Haulover Bridge, the pickup dropped into a large pothole, water poured into the engine compartment, and that was it. The engine stalled and could not be restarted.

Just then, and before I could fully appreciate our predicament, a Belize Defense Force Bedford 4-ton, high clearance truck, coming from the opposite direction, drove up to us and came to a stop. A soldier got out of the truck to check on us. He said that they were going to Airport Camp and that we should go with them. Without hesitation I climbed into the back of the large truck which had a canvas canopy. The driver of the pickup said that he thought the worst of the hurricane was over and that he and his two companions would stay with his vehicle.

The BDF truck pulled away from the stranded pickup truck, and we were on our way to Airport Camp. Even though the wind had now died down somewhat, the road was littered with tree branches. Several times along the way, the road was blocked by large tree limbs, and the soldiers got out with machetes and a chainsaw to clear the way. It took nearly three hours to go the four miles to Airport Camp.

We finally pulled into Airport Camp, and I was ushered into a building and then into a small, unfurnished room with a bare concrete floor and given a folding metal chair to sit on. I was told that this was the stockade but that I would not be locked up. The soldier said that I could stay there until morning. He also promised to bring me a blanket and a bowl of hot soup. He then left, and I was alone. I was cold, wet and hungry, and I looked forward to drying off and warming up with the soup, but nobody returned to check on me. I was left there alone for the duration of the night.

As soon as I saw the first light of morning, I let myself out of my cell and walked to the airport where I had left the Land Rover the night before. I was now somewhat dry and not too cold, and I was happy to be going home. Much to my relief, the Land Rover started right up, and I drove out from the airport. The water on the Northern Road had receded. The road, muddy and littered with debris, was passable. I saw no other vehicles on the road. As I entered the city and approached Central American Boulevard, I did not immediately see any hurricane damage, just a thick layer of mud on the streets. As I crossed over Belcan Bridge I looked to my left along Haulover Creek toward downtown, and I saw some houses that were severely damaged if not destroyed. I did not see anyone on the streets. The city seemed eerily deserted.

I reached home to find my host family finishing up scraping the mud from the lower floor of their two-story home. They had help from the 10 or 12 members of their extended family who spent the night in their solid cement house. The flood water left a mark that went 18 inches up the walls. There was no apparent damage to the outside of the house, and by evening the inside of the house was clean and dry.

I do not remember much about the aftermath of Hurricane Greta. I guess I was more focused on wrapping up my two-year Peace Corps stint in Belize and making plans to return home to California. I do recall that the pilot house of the Panulirus Argus was ripped from the hull and splintered, possibly from a tornado that touched down briefly along Haulover Creek in that part of the city. The two wooden skiffs left in the Fisheries yard ended up in the next property to the north. The inside of the Fisheries Unit Laboratory was wet but not damaged.

My lasting memory of Greta, however, is of the thick, sticky, putrid, black mud that was deposited on the city. In the mid-1970s many homes in Belize City were not connected to a septic tank or a sewer system. Residents of those homes disposed of wastewater on the ground or in the bushes and emptied their chamber buckets into the canals that crisscrossed the city or directly into the streets’ gutters, known locally as “drains.” Also, there were public toilets built cantilevered over the canals. This raw sewage, human feces and all, slowly flowed from drain to canal and finally into the harbor and the nearshore sea where it settled to the bottom and festered. Hurricane Greta scooped up 30 years’ worth of this muck and threw it right back onto the city’s streets, yards and open spaces. The resulting stench was pervasive and persistent. The mud remained on Belize City streets, fetid and foul, for days. In fact, when I left Belize for the States three weeks later the streets were still covered with this mud.

Comments...

Emilio Zabaneh:
I remember Greta, I was 6. My grandparents Henry and Jane Usher lived at 5.5 miles Northern Hwy, only half a mile from Haulover Bridge. Greta deposited 8 feet of mud into the yard burying everything beneath the drated mud.
You mentioned the ride up to the airport at Stanley Field and I daily rode up and down that road to attend school at Holy Redeemer. In 1978 I was in Standard 1, learning under my awesome teacher, Ms. Perriot. Many remember us as the grandkids of Ms. Jane Usher, from the Holy Redeemer Credit Union.

Paul Pollard:
Greta was my birthday present. I was 18 on the 18th of September 1978. On the 17th night they opened all the stores on downtown Albert Street till midnight so people could buy supplies. Me and my friends went downtown celebrating my birthday. On the 18 morning our family went to the Belikin Brewery to shelter. My dad was the manager at the time. The pelting rain and howling winds started mid afternoon, I believe. That mud that Greta dumped on the City eventually dried up and created a nasty dust for weeks after.

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by Michelle Rivana Buckley

On September 23, 1978 Belize felt the impact of Hurricane Greta. It was a storm like no other in my life time. I could recall being at home on Johnson Street when the storm hit. Many families in the southern district were at a loss and so were the disruption to Belize City. The southern district got the worst of it. At that time, my mother was in the US she had gone to do her yearly trip. My dad was left to take care of us kids. It was strange being at home without my mother and very scary. My eldest brother lived downstairs and when the hurricane started coming in it was a turning point. My brother had to come upstairs because our yard started to flood. He lived on the ground floor. Daddy did not think it would affect us so he decided to have us stay in our home on the second floor of his our house. Usually we would take refuge on higher grounds in Belmopan but this time we didn’t. We were all listening to the radio and my dad and brothers taking turns tracking the hurricane. As it brewed the water kept rising. Inside our house was like a zoo. Our roosters, cats, and dog started making a lot of noise as they shared the space with us. Looking back they must have sensed danger you know. My dad had his son wade in water to drag our dorey (canoe) and tied it up to our veranda. He had brought home his little 25 horsepower motor boat engine just for safety. As the water rose higher, winds howling he decided that we had to leave because the house was shaking terribly. I felt the fear wrapped inside of me when I looked thru our window. It seemed like heaven had open up and rain fell so loudly our roof was chattering from the wind. The water was rolling around as if boiling. My dad decided that he would take us to safety at the Elections and Boundaries office on Cemetary Road at the corner opposite a bar. I cannot remember the name of the bar. The government building was designated a safe haven and this was where his other son and his family was at.

The weather was so scary things blowing around us. My brother attached the motor to the dorey and took us kids three at a a time to the building. Boy that dorey was rocking as it sped up. It was a journey because he was fearful of hitting objects in the water and damaging the motor. So we had to be on the look out for large floating objects lantern in hand. Swinging from side to side due to the heavy winds. He made three trips with great difficulty trying to maneuver the dorey to get it close as possible to the stairs. I remember screaming in the journey for fear of capsizing. He had to go get our dad as my dad waited until his children were safe. Then as I was told the dorey capsized near the park as he was turning the corner onto Cemetery Road. There were only three of them and in the boat. My dad said that the motor fell off and his younger son had to hold onto the tree that was near Gills Restaurant. With all his strength he managed to turn the dorey in the upright position and like God send the paddle floated by. He then paddle to his son and had him hold on to the rope that was attached to the bow. all the while they were at the mercy of the wind and heavy rain. Out of fear he was able to get his son into the dorey. He then paddle arduously to pick up his other son who was holding onto the tree branch that hang low. It took them a while to reach safety that night. They were so weak and tired upon arrival. One of the men heard them yelling for help as they neared the building. I remember like it was yesterday the men that were in the building yelling to find a rope. It was difficult for them to continue as exhaustion was kicking in. My second eldest brother tied a rope around him and with the help of the others he swam towards my dad and his brothers. He then tied the rope to the bow rope of the dorey and he held on for dear life and the other men started to reel them in by tying the other end of the rope to the rail. I was crying because it was so scary listening to the commotion outside. Shouts everywhere. Finally they were safe. That night no one slept! We stayed up eating crackers with chicken sausage. That night my world seemed scarier than ever. My dad had decided to leave our dogs in our home and he was so upset about it. His concerns were about the animals. We stayed in place for a couple of days then returned home. Castillo’s warehouse just off of Vernon Street had severe damage. There can goods such as Milo was floating around the area. My mom brother brought a few cans home when he and my dad went to check on our home. Daddy brought our dog back with him and I was so happy to see that potlucker of a dog. Greta held her grounds and my family held theirs I cannot even imagine what 1931 Hurricane was like. I never forgot Greta, she reaked havoc thru the Caribbean. Like all things little old Belize survived with all her strength and beauty. It is the price we pay for our little gem of a country. We as a nation stand firm together during the challenges we face.

[i]by Debbie Samuels-Francis
I was 10-11 years old and still have a very vivid memory of hurricane Greta. We sheltered at BTC and a portion of the roof blew off. British soldiers assisted us to the lower level where we waited out the rest of the storm. We had to sit on the lab tables because there was flooding and it was dark. It was very scary as a child but as an adult I realized how perilous the situation was and always baffled by people who tries to brave the elements and shelter in place.


by Karen Reid-bull
Thanks for sharing Mich. I experienced two hurricanes, the first was Fifi 1974, we took shelter at Grace Primary for that one, a night of hard winds and heavy rains. I couldn’t wait for it to be over with to be back in our home, I never liked being in a crowd when I was little.

Greta 1978 we sheltered at our cousins who lived right in front of Grace Primary. It was a long scary night, howling winds hard rains, the elders praying and keeping vigil. I was worried and scared. Next morning we saw that the water was high, when it subsided and we went down the street to our home, the floor was all mud and silt. We spent days cleaning up. Thank goodness we had seek shelter, we also lived on the ground floor. I guess my grandma having experience of previous devastating hurricanes knew not to take any chances.

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The revealing pictorial taking from a classic 1978 AMANDALA newspaper shows the serious devastation that the 1978 Hurricane Greta inflicted upon the nation state of Belize countrywide especially Belize City!
(Photos through the courtesy of the Belize AMANDALA newspaper)

From the pages of BRUCKDOWN magazine, a few photos of what’s left after Hurricane Greta moved through Belize, dated 1978. Courtesy of Yasser Musa.