And while Ida has withered to a tropical depression, the National Emergency
Management Organization is tonight on alert and on standby. That is because
it will still be a rain maker with the possibility that it’ll dump more
than 20 inches of rain in some areas. That is of course the absolute worst case
scenario but it is what NEMO says it must prepare for. Minister of National
Emergency Melvin Hulse told the media all about it at a press conference this
afternoon at NEMO Headquarters in Belmopan. Here is the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
The good news from NEMO at this afternoon’s press conference was that…
Hon. Melvin Hulse, Minister of National Emergency
“Nowhere is flooding right now guys. There is not a drop of water
increasing in the North Stann Creek River. I was there ten o’clock last
night over the bridge di watch it and it is right there at nothing. The North
Stann Creek River is not flooding. Kendall is not flooding. So right now as
we sit here there is nowhere flooding right now.”
But that’s just right now the bad news is that there will be flooding
and most of it is expected to be in those same areas in the north and south
which were hardest hit by the floods of 08.
George Lovell, CEO - Ministry of NEMO
“We identified that the southern parts of the country might be the
first area that we expect floods to be, to answer your question. We are looking 
in the area of Boom Creek, Jordan, Punta Negra, Monkey River, Bladen, Swasey….and
Hope Creek. Those are the areas in the south that we are focusing a lot of efforts
on because those areas in the past have been areas that we know are susceptible
to flooding. As the Minister alluded to earlier, as we speak the rivers in most
of these areas would appear normal but there are rains that are being deposited
in areas outside our borders that we have to look at that can impact flash floods
in these flood prone areas.
We expect that in the north, we can expect also to have some flooding and
so we are looking at those areas again like the Albion Islands, Douglas and
those areas that are susceptible to flooding in the past as being likely areas
that can be impacted.”
Hon. Melvin Hulse,
“They keep advising us, ‘guys we got twenty odd inches of rain
that may reach Belize, may.’ We are not certain to what extent it will
survive once it crosses the mountains between Nicaragua and Honduras, we may,
so we cannot be reckless and not put things in place.”
And that’s why NEMO Minister Melvin Hulse says that they are preparing
for the absolute worst. NEMO is on alert and on standby with relief supplies
and rescue personnel.
Hon. Melvin Hulse,
“What we have done is that Fisheries’ boats are out there, we
have them up in the Albion Islands. We have contacted tractors and trailors
to move people, we have boats in place because as you all well known, out in
San Roman and San Antonio and Santa Cruz, always experience these flooding out
there and it is difficult to move. Our biggest concern is to be in place.
So we have the BDF in Sittee River with their boats. We have the Commissioner,
we have put people in place to be able to control because unfortunately in this
time the Stann Creek and the Toledo Districts get fragmented because we have
no bridge at Middlesex, we have no bridge at Kendall, and no bridge at Mullins
River. We don’t have any bridges there. So we needed to be way in advance
to put things in place. So we have boats in PG, we have a truck load of food
and clothing and blankets. We have everything in Punta Gorda Town.
What we have done also guys that to contact the community, we give them
phone cards so that those who have phone can then call in and identify that,
‘bwoy the river di come up, this is what is needed, and this is the impact.’
So across the districts, both districts, phone cards are out there. So there
will be someone monitoring every major river and creek.
So there are people in place in the Stann Creek and Toledo Districts. So
besides having food out there, we have BDF boats out there, we have police out
there, we have Fisheries’ boat out there, we have Customs out there. We
have private boats and dorys because in many cases it is dories you have to
use out there. We have buses, available buses, whether it is James or school
buses, we have some parked in Punta Gorda Town, some strategically located in
Bella Vista to be able to handle Punta Negra, Monkey River, Bladen, Swasey area
and we have Elodio and his team organized up in Orange Walk and we have Al in
Cayo.
So right now we have boats, we have people in place. We have everything
in place. We have identified where they are going to go and everything. We don’t
want to overkill but we cannot not be prepared.”
NEMO will remain activated over the weekend. Their national toll free
hotline number is 636. That’s right, just three numbers, 6-3-6. It can
be called from any telephone. The number can be used for disaster related emergencies.
Email
Print