And in storm relief news, we toured the city with the Belize Red Cross today. As you probably know, that charity organization runs on volunteers and donations, and after Hurricane Lisa, they've been on the go, searching for those households that are in the greatest need.
And today, our news team went along with them on the relief route as they found those in Belize City who may have lost their roofs, their appliances, and even their homes. Courtney Menzies has this story.
It's been a week since the all clear was given after Hurricane Lisa ravaged the Belize and Cayo Districts, and the Belize Red Cross have been on the streets ever since.
They are working along with NEMO to provide relief to storm-affected residents, filling the gaps that were missed.
But unlike the government organization, they do things a bit differently, handing out packages while simultaneously assessing the homes that were battered by the hurricane.
Tanya Hulse, Belize Red Cross
"At the moment we're currently distributing mattresses, blankets, tarpaulins, we're doing cleaning kits, hygiene kits, kitchen set, we do clothing, food items, and non-food items. We do an assessment of your locale before we distribute supplies because bear in mind, we have very limited supplies, we want to ensure that people get exactly what they need and get it where they need it so we don't give out, with the exception of clothing, we do not give out any resources at the headquarters, they're distributed on site so what the team does, the team will come with their mobile stocked with the supplies to be given out that day, we will visit each home in a particular area, we will do the damage assessment, and we will determine via that damage assessment what sort of relief is needed and what sort of relief we can supply."
And while they've visited a number of areas in and out of Belize City, today they were in the areas of Conch Shell Bay and Ebony Street - and once the residents saw them, they rushed to try and get one of the cleaning kits being distributed today.
And though they were grateful, they're still in need of a lot more materials to get back to normalcy.
Richy Rich Jones, Received Help From Red Cross
"I watch my zinc just raising up and slamming down back and raise back up and slam down back and my lady was frighten, she was telling me for us to go but I told her it's nothing really major because I know the storm because I'm a fisherman, during instances, if it was a category 2 more or less I would go somewhere from the day before but like how I know this is only a category 1, I said best thing we wait it out."
Courtney Menzies
"You got cleaning supplies today, tell me how you feel about that?"
Richy Rich Jones, Received Help From Red Cross
"It's a good hand because it will help me to wash up and wash my clothes and whatsoever, clean up and so on from during the hurricane. I would like some zinc and some material, like the zinc and some plywood, that would do good so I could just fix up my home."
Odessa Orozco, Received Help from Red Cross
"When we came back, I inspected my house and my plywood flew off and I asked my nephew to put that up there but as you could see the house old so when they try to nail back the board, it's all rusty nails, it doesn't want to hold so we put that and the zinc from over there too across there, that lifted up. I need some zinc and plywood. My bed was wet up, I need a little mattress, one for my daughter and one for my grand babies because it's me and them sleep together."
Courtney Menzies
"So what did you get today from Red Cross?"
Odessa Orozco, Received Help from Red Cross
"I got a little nice goodies from them, that I appreciate, I love it, thanks to Belize Red Cross for the little help. Just want to get into a nice home by Christmas. It leaks, as you could see my daughter put a little sheet over there, that leaks too. Back there, that fence is gone, and my washing machine, that went across to the neighbor, that doesn't work again."
And while the Belize Red Cross is trying to reach as many households as it can, it's impossible to help everybody, especially since most of their workers are volunteers. But with storms becoming more frequent are more deadly, they're going to need a lot more help.
Tanya Hulse, Belize Red Cross
"We work on pure volunteerism, it's really people doing this out of the goodness of their heart because even though we are working along with NEMO officials, these are paid government officials, whereas our staff per se, or our human resource power, is predominantly volunteers. We really, as the Red Cross, as a charity organization, wanna stress that we are doing the best we can with the resources we have but we really would like to look locally and even in the bigger picture for funding to support the work that we do because the work that we do is becoming more frequent in terms of disaster relief and disaster response and that is simply because of the climate crisis. The majority of donations and funding came from just donors in the public so we really want to stress that while people are looking out for us to come and give help, we need help as well."
But even with resources stretched thin, the Belize Red Cross was able to assess dozens of homes in Belize City today, and even supply those in Vista Del Mar with mattresses and more supplies.
As of yesterday, they have provided relief supplies to 1,965 residents and have assessed over 500 families.
Some of the donors have been the US Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, which supplied cleaning supplies and mattresses, Swami's, which gave thousands of uniforms for school kids, IDB and the Caribbean International Brewery, who made financial donations.
And right now, the Belize Red Cross is still taking donations, either financially or in the form of children's clothing, sheets and towels, hygiene products, and food.
