Radisson Pier Belize City After Hurricane Richard

Our Sunday afternoon meal was interrupted by the General Manager of the Radisson Hotel in Belize City with an announcement that Tropical Storm Richard had indeed turned in to a Category 1 Hurricane and was headed directly for Belize City.  He expected it to reach the Radisson around 3pm and gave us a briefing on what to expect.

To our surprise the restaurant was full of people as a group heading to Turneffe Island was forced to take refuge in the hotel.  As soon as the General Manager began speaking a buzz of conversation filled the room and folks started heading to the buffet to take food to their room.  You would have thought this was their last meal as the buffet was cleaned out in a matter of minutes and everyone dispersed quickly to their rooms.

Mary and I went to our room, sans food, and around 3pm the winds picked up as the outer edge of Hurricane Richard reached us.  The storm continued for several hours and eventually the power went out. The generators came on so we had lights and could see that the bottom floor and courtyard were flooding rapidly.  There was nothing we could do but watch until we were so tired that we fell asleep.

The next morning we awoke early to find that the generator power was still on but we learned that the water pumps had been flooded so we had no water.  Mary and I decided to do a little "walk about" and captured a few photos of the aftermath.  The Radisson was flooded and sustained some damage but the Radisson Pier was destroyed and this is where our Liveaboard the Sun Dancer II is suppose to dock.

Early in the morning the General Manager decided that to clean up and fix the hotel he had to close it so we were homeless from about mid-morning until late afternoon.  Andrina, with Dancer Fleet, secured us a bus and we spent some quality time at the Greater International Belize Airport prior to eventually boarding the Sun Dancer II.