INDEPENDENCE, Belize (21 Oct 2001) -- Two Belizean women were among the twenty-two persons who drowned aboard the dive boat Wave Dancer when Hurricane Iris struck the coast of Big Creek last Monday night, October 8. Another woman, Angela Luk, who refused to stay aboard and was promptly fired by Capt. Philip Martin, would almost surely have lost her life if she did not defy the Captain. Eloisa Johnson, ship's cook on the Wave Dancer, wanted to leave, but she loved her job, and when the Captain threatened to fire her, she decided to stay. Brenda Wade, her friend and mother of one, also wanted to leave but stayed to keep Eloisa company. The two women were close in life, and they died that way. On the day of the storm Brenda made several telephone calls. She called her husband, Beto Hall, in Corozal around 4:30 that afternoon. "Brenda was crying," Hall recalls. She said to me: 'Babes, this dog (meaning the Captain) does not want me to leave the boat." "I told her to get off. 'Do you want me to come and get you?' "She replied: No, Beto. You stay there and make sure everything is all right with the house.' "Once more I urged her to get off the boat. She replied: 'But they will fire me, and I don't know where to go.' She then asked me to pray". Visibly moved, Beto Hall told Reporter: "People need to know what was happening on that boat. My Eloisa wanted to get off, but they told her she would be fired, and because she loved her job, she stayed. "I spoke to Eloisa's crew-mate, Bart Stanley, one of the survivors from the Wave Dancer," Hall continued. Bart was totally devastated by what had happened. He was standing beside Eloisa, who had finished cooking and was washing dishes when a rush of water came and carried her away. "Bart told me that Brenda Wade was another special person. She was serving coffee after the meal when the wave came." Beto Hall went on to say: " I remember in 1999 Eloisa and I were aboard the Wave Dancer in Miami when Hurricane Irene was approaching. Authorities in Florida ordered a mandatory evacuation, and we spent the time in a hotel room. I do not know why the same did not happen here in our country." The day after the storm Beto Hall drove to Big Creek. He was able to confirm his worst nightmare when he saw several bodies lined up on the pier. There was his Eloisa, still with her apron on, among the dead. Mrs. Bernadette Williams, sister of Brenda Wade, told Reporter: "I think Brenda is dead because of negligence. The Wave Dancer was closer to Belize City from the start. I cannot understand why instead of seeking refuge in Belize City, they would choose to travel all the way south to Big Creek. | | "I know that Brenda was trying to reach me on the telephone on Monday, October 8. She was trying to call, but she only got the BTL message service. She did not get me, but she spoke to my mother. If I had spoken to her, I would have urged her to leave the boat, regardless of the consequences." Brenda also spoke to Beto Hall, Eloisa's husband, in Corozal. Beto was calling the Wave Dancer for Eloisa and got Brenda instead. He said to her: "Brenda, you know this thing is coming right on top of you." She said to him: "I know, Boy, but if we leave the Captain will fire us. But they have tied the boat up with some big ropes." Beto Hall is still angry and bitter at the way the management of the dive service handled the emergency. "I cannot understand how these people could have had these girls working in all that swaying from side to side," he said. "I know that the Belizean agent, Ryan Vernon, knew of the situation and did nothing, just as he did nothing when the crew complained to him. Those girls had no contact with the Aggressor, their sister ship, which was moored alongside, because the captain had removed the VHF radio from the dive deck and the one from Eloisa's kitchen." Hall, who kept in close contact with his wife by telephone, reports that according to Eloisa, Captain Martin was intent on completing a scheduled noon dive on Monday, the day of the hurricane. He was only dissuaded when a helicopter flew over with a flag signal, obliging him to cancel. Hall said that when he heard this he immediately telephoned Steve Young, a friend who had served on the Wave Dancer for eight years, and now lives in Placencia. Steve Young had walked off his job on the boat in disgust. Now Beto Hall turned to him for help. He asked his friend Steve to check up on Eloisa to make sure she would be OK. " When I told Steve what was happening, he exclaimed the captain was crazy to travel to this area. He called me back around 4:30 to say that the boat had docked safely in Big Creek." |
