Belize: Flash flood traps Canadian couple on rock, rescued after 5 hours

Belize: A Canadian couple who was adventuring in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve in Belize got stuck between rushing rapids on Saturday afternoon, leaving them standing on a rock for several hours before being rescued. 

According to the information, around 4:30 in the evening, the couple had gone swimming in the Rio on Pools when the water started to rise because of a flash flood. The couple was able to settle on a rock, but they were stranded for hours because of the dangers of trying to swim to shore amid the flood. 

The couple, who reportedly live in the Mountain Pine Ridge, remained trapped for nearly five hours until emergency services rescued them before 9 pm. 

A resident of Cayo, Jeremiah Allen, who was in the area with his nephew when the flash flood began, spoke about alerting emergency services and the collective efforts to rescue the couple. 

He said, “I had to make a decision immediately, they needed help and needed emergency rescue right away and so I signaled out to them.”

The resident continued to say that the female started to get down into the water like she was going to try to get to shore, and he could tell it was just going to be tragic if she got swept away.

He also said that there was no way she could have made it as the rapids were far too strong, following which Allen signaled them to wait and called the officials. About 20 minutes later, the first rescuer showed up, following which several teams started to show up, and the couple finally got off the truck and were successfully rescued at around 8:20 at night.

“So they were in the river for four hours and 20 minutes from the time they got stranded until the time they were rescued. So I just praise God that he put me there in the right place at the right time,” said Allen.