BELIZE CITY - Hurricane Lisa bore down on Belize on Wednesday, yanking out trees, toppling electric poles and causing scattered blackouts in the Caribbean nation, but there were no immediate reports of deaths or major damage.

'It is a scary experience,' said Angelica Escalante, who works in Sand Hill, just outside Belize City, and expressed concern about her neighbors' homes. 'Their roofs might not be strong enough for this weather.'

Some roofs did sustain damage, and flooding to bungalows was also visible, but local officials had yet to quantify the impact from the storm.

The eye of Lisa, a Category 1 hurricane, churned 32 kilometers west of Belize City, the tiny country's main commercial port, weakening somewhat as it made landfall. Its extended reach packed maximum sustained winds of 120 kph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in its latest report.

The center forecast rapid weakening as Lisa moved further inland, but steady rainfall and the potential for widespread flooding still posed significant dangers.

A vehicle and pedestrians make their way through a street flooded by heavy rain before the arrival of Hurricane Lisa in Belize City on Nov. 2, 2022.

NHC predicted that after Lisa moved over sparsely populated Belize, its strong winds and heavy rains would slowly cross the jungles of northern Guatemala and southeastern Mexico, home to ancient Maya ruins and beach resorts.

Weather models over the next couple of days showed Lisa on a path to reach the southern Gulf of Mexico's Bay of Campeche, where major offshore drilling rigs operated by national oil company Pemex are located. The models, however, showed a weakened storm system once it reached the area.

The NHC said Lisa was moving west at 19 kph and that a powerful storm surge could lift tides about 1 to 2 meters above normal levels.

The Belize government's emergency services announced on Wednesday afternoon a state of emergency, including a curfew across two districts covering large swaths of its Caribbean coast through Thursday. Officials advised people living in vulnerable areas to move to shelters, adding that border crossings, ports and airports were also ordered closed.

President Alejandro Giammattei of neighboring Guatemala told a news conference that food rations were being sent to vulnerable areas.

Giammattei added that damage was expected in Guatemala's Maya biosphere reserve, a stretch of protected rainforest home to rich fauna and major archeological sites.

Guatemala's disaster agency Conred said earlier that floods had hit Melchor de Menchos, the main border crossing with Belize, affecting 95 people and inflicting 'moderate damage' on some homes.

Honduras fire chief Wilmer Guerrero said Lisa had not caused damage when it passed over Honduras' Bay Islands, while its largest island, Roatan, suspended a state of emergency there.

The NHC also warned of hurricane conditions between the Mexican border city of Chetumal and Costa Maya, one of the country's most popular cruise ports, though its tropical storm warning did not stretch as far north to the popular beach resort of Tulum.

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  Reuters

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