Tonight, electricity and water service have been restored to most of the Corozal District. 95% of Corozal Town has electricity, and 20 of 29 villages in the Corozal District also have electricity, and with that rudimentary water systems in all of those villages have also come back on line. NEMO is supplying water to those villages that have not been restored. NEMO also reports that hurricane relief is getting through to storm damaged communities. According to coordinator, Jim Jan Mohammed ten thousand persons have been fed in the past week. Teams from the British Army and the Police Department are fixing roofs and Jan-Mohammed says almost four thousand sheets of zinc have been sent out. Vector control spraying campaigns also been completed in 16 villages. As for the $8,000 grants to repair battered homes, Jan Mohammed says his office is not responsible for those disbursements. And while progress is being made, for context and for the benefit of our northern viewers who just got back electricity, we look back at some of the images that made news last week.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
When the winds and gusts of up to an estimated 100 miles an hour ripped through the Corozal District - no one could rightly estimate the devastation it would wreak over those three hours of sustained winds. And the strange calm of the wind raked morning - would give way to a week of desperation and confusion that Corozal had not seen for 50 years.
From the basketball rims at Escuela Mexico that that were hurled to the ground, to the shattered glass house of area politician Greg Garcia, husband of former Social Security boss Narda Garcia, to massive trees uprooted and flipped like toothpicks, to massive tree roots that spread out like tentacles into the sky, to entire forested areas overturned like they went for a spin in nature's blender to the police ready for whatever, to so many homes leveled by the storm, to helicopters on reconnaissance, to the relief of gas stations opened up for the first time in two days, and to fallen lampposts and battered billboards, to churches with a clear view of the heavens, to houses that the heavens could clearly see, the one time residents of these left to live in hot and dark school buildings, to the scraps of their lives left all over.
And while the supply chain did flow in from Thursday and the British arrived to help residents such as those in San Joaquin, they still had to deal with the lines to get food wand water. Lines stretching as long as the imagination could tell. The thirsty children, the clamor at the front of the line and the weary pull at the gatekeepers' domain waiting for this: a sack of supplies, good for a week for a family of five.
But all is not lost, these leaning papaya trees will still give fruit while another 600 acres will just have to lie there and die there. But some jobs will be provided in bringing even these far gone fields back and in five months, they should stand again. Not so easy for sugar which they say is 90% destroyed in Corozal and will have difficulty being ready for harvest in December.
But the clean-up in the town is just about finished, the electricity restored and relief is at hand, or on the way. The problem will be getting it trickled out to the many areas of need in this largely rural district.
We'll have more from Corozal tomorrow.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift
