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Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Iris kills about 20 on a boat in Belize
Storm crosses Guatemala, reaches the Pacific Ocean, where it could strengthen
By Julie Watson
Associated Press

   BIG CREEK, Belize - Flattening towns and flinging boats into the mangroves, Hurricane Iris tore through Belize and capsized a yacht of divers from Virginia who had sought shelter in a small bay. The owners said Tuesday that as many as 20 people were feared dead.
   Twenty divers from the Richmond, Va., area and eight crew members were aboard the MV Wave Dancer, when the year's most powerful Atlantic storm hit southern Belize with 140 mph winds Monday night, said Patricia Rose, spokeswoman for Peter Hughes Diving in Miami.
   She said eight survivors, five of them crew members, had been accounted for Tuesday morning. The boat was one of two 120-foot yachts that had been chartered by the Richmond Dive Club for a week-long trip in Belize.
   The Wave Dancer lay on its side in about 12 feet of water on Tuesday just a few steps from land. Stunned passengers wandered about on the neighboring Belize Aggressor III, watching as the bodies of friends were pulled from the water.
   Helicopters roamed overhead, apparently looking for survivors
   "We're hoping for survivors, but I don't know that it's likely," Rose said in Miami. By midday, 15 bodies had been recovered, police Detective David Williams said.
   There were no immediate reports of other deaths caused by the storm, but Prime Minister Said Musa said in a radio broadcast that 900 people had been left homeless.
   "We expect this number to rise as we clear the roads and gain access to additional villages," he said.
   Iris crossed Guatemala overnight and weakened to a tropical depression. At midday, the remains of the storm had emerged into the Pacific Ocean, and there was a chance it could form again.
   Boat operators had docked the Wave Dancer alongside two other boats in Big Creek, a relatively protected site, hoping to shield it from the storm, said Lynn McNeal, co-owner of The Dive Shop in Richmond, who was in touch with the boat operators.
   Early forecasts had projected Iris hitting Belize City, 80 miles to the north, and that city of 65,000 was being evacuated by soldiers earlier Monday.
   "Belize City was evacuated so we could not put the guests in a hotel. We were forced to keep them on the boat," Rose said.
   Williams said the Wave Dancer had been colliding with the Aggressor during the night and a tugboat, torn loose by the storm, blew into the Wave Dancer, capsizing it.

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