A first assessment of damage to terrestrial ecosystems in Southern Belize as caused by Hurricane Iris of October 8, 2001

Meerman, Jan C. (2001) A first assessment of damage to terrestrial ecosystems in Southern Belize as caused by Hurricane Iris of October 8, 2001. Technical Report.

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Abstract

In the evening hours of Monday October 8, 2001. Hurricane Iris hit the south of Belize. The hurricane made landfall near Independence in the Stann Creek district. At that stage Iris demonstrated sustained winds of over 140 mph. From Independence, Iris moved in a WSW course and left Belize less than two hours after landfall. The resulting destruction was immense as was to be expected from a hurricane of this strength. What was immediately clear though, was the relatively narrow path of the hurricane. Iris was a “small” but extremely powerful hurricane. Unusual was also the very discrete path of destruction. In total approximately 775,000 acres 310,000 ha) appear to have been severely affected by the force of the hurricane.

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