Email

Print

We'll tell you about that shortly, but tonight, we start with coverage of the clean-up campaign at 4 Belize City schools, three of which were devastated by the hurricane. Daniel Ortiz has that story:

John Briceno - Prime Minister
"All schools across the nation will return to regular classes on Monday, November 7th."

Francis Fonseca - Minister of Education
"We're asking that between now on Monday, those principals and teachers, especially where your school has been used as a hurricane shelter, go in to check on the condition of your school and make sure that it is properly prepared and ready for classes on Monday."

Some Belize District teachers heard that announcement last Thursday from Government officials and were completely put off by its implication.

Their interpretation was that the Ministry of Education must not have done a detailed assessment of the state of the Belize District's schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Lisa. Because if they did, they would have found a muddy mess at schools like Wesley Lower School, Anglican Cathedral College, and Wesley College.

All three of these institutions are near the Belize City Coastline, and they were inundated with ankle-deep mud, which was left behind from the massive storm surge that the Hurricane made landfall with.

The faculty of Wesley Lower Primary School had to request the help of the National Fire Service. Their firefighting truck had to deploy their fire hoses as a pressure washer to remove the thick layer of muck that had hardened.

Of course, the stench inside the muddy classrooms was also unbearable.

Pamela Baird - Vice-Principal, Wesley Lower School
"You guys are here, and you can see first-hand. It's all all the downstairs classes that have been affected by mud. The Fire Service is currently here trying to assist. We had to take out all the furniture from all the downstairs classes, including the cafeteria and the principal's office. We also had structural damage, and you guys got the photographs, pictures, and video of that. Just upstairs in my office, there are two holes. So, I'm so scared just to go into the office right now. The teachers have lost their Marley. These pieces of Marley are newly purchased. It's the entire roll that has been purchased for each class, and these are totally destroyed. Some of the charts are destroyed. The fire engine is going to hose off the furniture, so that won't be a problem. But, the stench, you would actually have to be here to be smelling the odor that we're smelling. It's like a strong fish smell and a strong smell of adult male urine. And that is very hazardous to the children's health. This is devastation. I don't see how this can be dealt with in three days."

Anglican Cathedral College, located a few blocks away on Regent Street, is further along in its clean-up campaign. And according to their principal, the only reason their compound appeared ready for the resumption of classes is that their staff and students got a head-start from last Friday.

Nelson Longsworth - Principal, Anglican Cathedral College
"The work continues. We started early Friday morning, power-washing and sweeping the mud from just about everywhere. Every ground-floor classroom had more than six inches of mud remaining. The water came into about 2 feet, but it left a whole lot of silt. The basketball court had about 6 inches of silt. So, we have been spraying and power washing since Friday. A lot still continues in terms of cleaning and removing the silt. We had some support from the Fire Service. They came in and really helped us with the court. But we continue to work on the classrooms. What we're doing now is disinfecting and doing and a higher level of cleaning within the classrooms to make sure that they are up to mark for our students to come back. It had seemed impossible when I came here on Friday morning. I had on a pair of rubber boots, and I was in the mud, three to four inches, walking through into the gate. But we're getting there, and I think the resolve of the teachers and, of course, the students who came to assist, and there has really been a sign of wanting to get our school back into some sort of shape to resume classes. We should be finished with this level of cleaning by the end of today, and then we go into trying to make sure that the walls and everything are cleaned and dried. That's where we have another wave of issues coming with mildew and so on."

Over at Wesley College, one of the classrooms had half of its zinc roofing partially removed by the Hurricane's strong winds. The school's compound showed signs of large quantities of mud deposited by the storm surge. The management had to hire a work crew with heavy machinery to assist them in the removal of the mud and debris.

Marvin Kellyman - Academic Vice-Principal, Wesley High School
"We suffered considerable damage. Some of our buildings lost roofs. All the ground classrooms suffered damage: water and mud, silt settled inside. And so, we had fallen trees. The compound [was] filled with mud and silt that came in from the sea. So, our teachers and students - some of our students - are here assisting. We believe - we'll try to do it within a week, but if we need more time, we'll apply to the ministry. But, we'll try to do it within a week, because at the same time, we want the students to come back."

Daniel Ortiz
"Have you all done any preliminary estimates as to the structural damage and the cost it will be to repair?"

Marvin Kellyman
"Well, that is still ongoing, but we can tell you that at this time, it's in the thousands already, thousands of dollars worth. The damage has been significant. We lost the roof on some of our buildings. But we had prepared for this, So we removed many of our appliances and items from the ground floor and moved them up to the second floor. So in terms of electronics and so on, no. It was only books and furniture that we couldn't move from the ground floor. But the cost is in the thousands of dollars, and it's growing day by day. As you can see, we have to pay for the removal of all this debris. We have a few days, so we will see how much we can do within this time. I know there are students who lost their homes, lost their personal effects. So, they won't have books, school bags, or uniforms. So, all that we'll have to look into. There are some who, at this time, also need to find food. And so, as a school, we have to look at all these areas. While we try to recover and put the infrastructure back on track, we also look at the mental health and the condition of our students as it pertains to their well-being."

According to the Belize National Teachers Union, there are several other schools in the Belize District with similar challenges, which our news team visited today. And that's why they had to make an emergency intervention with the Ministry of Education.

Senator Elena Smith - National President, BNTU
"Obviously, our teachers were upset with that decision, especially those who know first-hand what it is they are going through. We had many of our teachers who suffered damage to their homes. We have many of our students who suffered as well, and it seems a bit [like] rushing to say that classes begin as normal today, knowing that we just came out of a hurricane, and people have not yet gotten on their feet. You're seeing right now, first-hand, what Wesley Lower School is going through, and this is just one school. So, imagine that these teachers have to deal with their homes and have to come to school to deal with the school to be able to reopen. There is no way that they can reopen today. Had the ministry come out to do an assessment of these schools, they would have understood what our teachers were saying to us and what our students and parents are saying. It's not just about the teachers; it's about students and our parents who, at this point, are not prepared to return to the classroom yet."

Over at Trinity Methodist in the Kings Park area of Belize City, we found a handful of students at school, some of whom couldn't be in their classrooms. That's because excess water from the flash floods associated with the hurricane accumulated under the Marley vinyl floor covering in the classrooms on the ground floor. That meant that the damp environment was ideal for a breakout of mold and mildew.

Jamael Campbell - Principal, Trinity Methodist School
"To the building, we have very little [damage], but we did suffer rain damage. Upon our first inspection, we didn't see the water in the classes under the Marley. So, today, when we're here now, fully, we realized that under the Marley has water, which needs to be dried out. Our security booth is tipped over, and our eating area, some of the roofing has to be changed. Of course, our lighting, and the wiring for the lights, blew off the top of the roof. So, that is the impact that we have at this time."

Reporter
"I see students here at the school try to - I guess that the school tried to meet the deadline set by the ministry."

Jamael Campbell
"Right, we awaited the Ministry's call as to what the response should be. And, of course, sometime after one yesterday, we got word that if we weren't really impacted, we should be back at school. And so, we informed parents, and thus, you see the kids here, of course, just a handful because of the impact that the family suffered themselves, that they are unable to be here at this time."