Hurricane Dean has come and gone and living with the aftermath is proving more difficult than surviving the storm. Tonight, many residents of the Corozal District are growing restless waiting for rebuilding supplies and rations to be provided. Today we visited one of the most hard hit villages, Xaibe and found village council chairman Luciano Noh angry and abandoned.
Luciano Noh, Chairman – Xaibe Village
“NEMO, I haven’t seen a NEMO personnel up until now. I haven’t seen any NEMO and that is very sad because just last week Sunday we had a meeting with NEMO personnel and up until now, up to this point, I feel real bad that they haven’t put their faces out here to explain to the people how they will help. I am the Chairman of this village. Along with my committee we have been trying to do the best we can to assist the villagers. However, that is
not enough. It is not enough. NEMO personnel, or any other government agency, has been here to assist us at this point. Its really sad to say that.”
Jorge Aldana, CTV-3
“What is the reaction from the villagers?”
Luciano Noh,
“The villagers are pretty sad at
this point and they are either waiting to see what time help will come. They are waiting for this moment when something will happen so that we could get this village straightened up.”
Jorge Alcoser, Xaibe Villager
“All the trees fell down and we were let without work. We work in the papaya fields and now we are without work. W e don’t know until when we will start to work again…and it is the poorest ones that will be suffering and we need help.”
Jules Vasquez,
So why are you here now?
Jorge Alcoser,
“Because we heard on the radio that they will give provisions and
that is why the people are coming over here. And when you go to buy at the shops, they are selling it expensive. There is no control.”
Jules Vasquez,
What does your family need?
Jorge Alcoser,
“We need provisions, we need water and we need electricity also. They had promised us that they would rapidly give us back the electricity and up to now I haven’t seen any movement there are many villages that are left without electricity."
Jules Vasquez,
How many in your family?
Jorge Alcoser,
“We are six.”
Jules Vasquez,
And you don’t have water?
Jorge Alcoser,
“No I don’t. What we have we cannot use because dirt fell in it.”
Luciano Noh,
“If you take a stroll through the village, you could see that we have massive destruction throughout; buildings with zinc roofing flying off completely. Most of the trees have been destroyed; avocado trees, pears, and any tree that was planted. The trees I am talking about are guava, orange, plantain were completely destroyed.”
Jules Vasquez,
And these are things people would farm and harvest and sell?
Luciano Noh,
“Exactly. That is part of the way of living for the villagers. Most of it was destroyed and it caused a great disaster for the villagers and at this moment we are in urgent need from the government or other agencies that
wish to assist us. We need at this moment zincs for the different houses. From yesterday we had the British Forces here with us, assisting in the cleaning up.”
Lt. Com. David Knight, HMS Portland
“Yesterday we managed to get the approval to come ashore and deploy some of our sailors from the ship to come and offer disaster relief help and bring material which is needed to help prepare local homes in terms of roofing materials mainly and deploy our teams to help people get themselves back on their feet.”
Jules Vasquez,
What is your priority area?
Lt. Com. David Knight,
“In this village here, and surrounding villages within about a 5 to
10 kilometer range from Xaibe and we are based here alongside the army from BATSUB and able to facilitate them moving the equipment which is brought by helicopters from the ships to the site and distributed by road to where the teams need it to help the local villages in this area.”
Luciano Noh,
“The reaction of the people, people
are there eager to get help, they are eager to assist but as I said if we don’t have material to work, we cannot do anything at this point. We haven’t even received money, any food to try help the people; no water, nothing at all. I am a PUP Chairman, I am a part of this government and I can say, government is trying to assist us at this point. I just hope that you whosoever is listening, that this reaches their ears and we need the proper assistance. We need assistance at this point. We need urgent assistance over here.”
