Hurricane Iris hits Belize

BIG CREEK, Belize - Flattening buildings and flinging boats ashore, Hurricane Iris tore through Belize and capsized a yacht carrying U.S. divers, killing 15 people and leaving five others missing and 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 the Miami-based Peter Hughes Diving, which coordinated the trip.

She said five crew members and three divers had been accounted for yesterday morning. The boat was one of two 120-foot yachts that had been chartered by the Richmond Dive Club for a weeklong trip in Belize.

The Wave Dancer lay on its side in about 12 feet of water yesterday, just a few feet from shore. The night before, Iris' storm surge temporarily raised the sea level by some 13 to 18 feet, pulling the boats with it and flooding nearby land.

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. That number was expected to rise, he said.

"Belize has greatly suffered once again, but we are a strong people, and working together with God's guidance and the assistance of the international community, we will rebound from this devastation," he said.