The City Council had to respond in a hurry today because no one predicted that the tropical wave would dump over 10 inches of rain in the city, most of it in just 12 hours. But the city's disaster response mechanism was well oiled after the Hurricane Dean scare and this evening the Mayor told us what the CEMO did to respond.
Zenaida Moya, Mayor of Belize City
"Our priority areas are Jane Usher Boulevard Area and of course Belama Phase 3 and 4. We currently have trucks out there trying to assist residents to evacuate to shelters if they would want to."
Jules Vasquez,
So what shelters are open?
Zenaida Moya,
"We have three shelters currently open. We have Gwen Lizarraga High School on Cemetery Road; we have St. Michael's College on Dolphin Street; and we also have the UB Campus on Freetown Road. What I was informed of by those who we sent out to do assessments in the area, clearly some of the most populated areas that are flooded.
Of course I must say that not everybody would want to leave their homes, which is something I guess they will do at their own risk in terms of staying in any flooded homes, particularly those homes that clearly will not be able to withstand those flooding and so they really have to look at it. The kids and the old people, I must say those are of great concern to us because they cannot really fend for themselves."
The shelter at St. Martin's De Porres has also been opened. And while the trucks went out and the shelters were opened, this evening the councilor in charge of that operation, Phillip Willoughby told us that not one person or family took up the offer. And that's for two reasons: first, city residents basically intuit that waters rise, crest and will inevitably fall; and second, many of those who left their home during Hurricane Dean - only left the thieves to burglarize their homes - and they're not getting burnt like that again.