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Hon. Boots Martinez, Minister of Works
"We will begin almost immediately; yesterday we started to do the necessary assessment. We have set up this office here especially for that purpose. This is an office here now for the ministry of works for that specific project. We have our engineer and staff here that will be making all the necessary and preparing the estimates and so we could start to work immediately. When I say immediately I mean immediately as of tomorrow."

Andrea Polanco
"So far in your assessment, how many homes would you say are damaged or have been totally destroyed?"

Hon. Boots Martinez, Minister of Works
"Well as far as totally destroyed my numbers as far as I know it, it would be about 15 we know of at this time. We are still doing the assessment, people are there on the ground and we will say at least in my view over 100 people have been affected in terms of its 3 sheets of zinc missing or their windows broken and so forth. We are still doing the assessment. We invite anybody from the city that has been affected. So if you got 2-3 zinc blow off we will replace it; if your house went down, we will replace it; if your roof went off - we will replace it. We have other components of NEMO of which the Ministry of Human Resources and other factors will chip in, but this aspect of it is for only the people that have been affected directly by the hurricane."

Andrea Polanco
"This will be for residents of the city or people across the country can come here?"

Hon. Boots Martinez, Minister of Works
"Only for the city. The ministry works in charge of the restoring of the homes that were damaged in Belize City alone. In the other districts and villages that will be done by NEMO, but the Ministry of Works is in charge of the Belize City aspect of it. I need to remind the public that there might be a small hitch in terms of access to material. When the storm a lot of people went to but material, so you can have money but not material so the Prime Minister has made monies available almost immediately so we will effect the work immediately. Any material that we can get to affect the repairs and the building of homes will be affected and I must say that all of these work will be done simultaneously. We usually especially in the south side projects use contractors who intern hire people from within that specific area and it have been working well under the south side project so I think under the ministry's project it also will be working with."

Andrea Polanco
"So this will also employ some people here?"

Hon. Boots Martinez, Minister of Works
"A huge amount of employment for people especially on the south side that was terrible hit. "

Residents can also call the office which will be opened from Sunday to Sunday at 207-0459. While the project seeks to deal with only those whose homes were damaged as a direct result of the storm, those whose yards may have been damaged and are in need of landfill or land reclamation can get help from the Southside Alleviation Project.