7 News Belize

CEMO Gets An Early Start On Hurricane Season
posted (January 16, 2020)

Last year's hurricane season ended almost 2 months ago, and this year's season won't begin until June 1st.

But, the Belize City Council's City Emergency Management Organization and the Belize Red Cross are already getting a head-start on disaster management. They want to ensure that if any natural disasters hit the seaside City, residents are prepared and protected with mechanisms at the community level for rapid evacuation. 

The Council and Red Cross hosted a workshop today on early warning systems and the city's means of detecting imminent natural disasters before they actually hit the country. We stopped by this morning to learn more from the facilitators about the inclusion of the community in the city's disaster preparedness. Here's what they told us:

Lilly Bowman - Director General, Belize Red Cross
"This activity today, which is an early warning systems workshop is a product or a delivery from one of our projects that are ongoing, which is funded by the USAID OFDA, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. It's called the capacity to build initiatives of national societies and communities in the Caribbean. Belize is one of three national societies in the Caribbean that are implementing. We have partnered with CEMO, and it is basically because they are the national authorities in the City, and we are working with 3 communities within the City. We're working with the Lake I Community, Jane Usher Community, and we're also working with Collet."

Oscar Arnold - Deputy Mayor, Belize City Council
"We know that the hurricane season ended last year in November, but the CEMO, along with the direction from the National Emergency Organization, has partnered with the Red Cross to have this training workshop on early warning systems. They're also working in vulnerable communities, communities in low-lying areas that are prone to flooding. They've set up committees in the Jane Usher Boulevard Area, Antelope Street Extension, as well as the Gungulung in Lake I. So, what they've done is that they've gotten area residents in the area to get involved in this entire process."

Lilly Bowman
"What we have done in this project is a lot of training, forming community disaster response teams. We will also be equipping, and we will have a simulation to test what they have learned, especially like today with early warning systems, and how to respond in times of an emergency."

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize