The Belize City Council hosted a major disaster preparedness conference today at the Biltmore Best Western. It's called "Comprehensive Disaster Management For Municipalities" and it assembles representatives from all relevant stakeholders to put them all on the same page to talk about what to do in the event of a disaster. In his opening address Mayor Darrell Bradley explained the importance of the big picture.
Darrell Bradley - Mayor, Belize City
"In times of emergency there are people who risk their lives to ensure that others are safe and that needs to be recognized. The importance, functions and roles needs to be appreciated and their needs to be more synergies developed so that we are supporting the structure and that we are able to ensure that in times of emergency that there is coordination. But it is to ensure that we are very efficient and we all well coordinated and that in times of a disaster - every single entitiy knows what they are supposed to do; every single person knows what he or she is supposed to do so that we are able to save lives. If there is not activities like this symposium then within that response structure, persons will not know what to do and we will have a situation where further lives are lost and further property is put at peril."
Reporter
"Do you think in the event of an emergency - are we prepared?"
Darrell Bradley
"I think that NEMO and CEMO are doing a tremendous job in readiness but you could never have enough preparation. The idea is CEMO during the last six months has been going through a series of training - we've developed a strategic plan for the city to be better at emergency response. The symposium is part of the implementation phase of that strategic plan.
We must ensure that our plans take into account flood mitigation, climate change - we must design a city that can withstand a hurricane. When we're granting approvals for building permits - we must ensures that there are codes in place, we must ensure that these codes are followed and that we put in place standards - not if an even of an emergency but years before the emergency that take into account situations of disaster management."
It is a two-day event, which continues tomorrow.
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