Politics can make strange bedfellows, they say, but so can hurricane - or at least the aftermath. Since Lisa struck Elize City - we've seen an outpouring os support and on Sunday, Cherisse Halsall saw bipartisanship in action on the city streets as two mayors, one red, one blue hooked up for the clean up:
They say Sunday is a day of rest, but in the direct aftermath of a Hurricane like Lisa there was work to do. And among those hard at work on Belize City's streets were two mayors, Belize City's Wagner and San Ignacio's Earl Trapp - one PUP and the other UDP, working together for a cause bigger than partisan politics.
Earl Trapp, Mayor, San Ignacio & Santa Elena
"We are aware of the disaster that took place in Belize City. The entire country of Belize, hurricane passed us and Belize City was the one that was mostly hit so of course we realize the state of devastation here and we saw the mobilization of what Mayor Bernard in Belize was doing so we just decided that we would have joined forces to give him a hand. We put together our back hoe a truck and a vehicle and a trailer and we came out like with 21 men strong and since yesterday we've been working with them yesterday morning. Half of the crew went back home and the other half this morning we've been out here supporting our sister city here."
Cherisse Halsall:
"What's the response you've gotten from regular citizens in Belize City as you go about your work?"
Earl Trapp, Mayor, San Ignacio & Santa Elena
"The people are appreciative I can tell you and more than what I really expected. I thought the city was different than San Ignacio, Santa Elena where I come from but mean the people here are very warm, you know it started this morning on Cran street about 6:00 o'clock and about a quarter of 7:00 a resident from Cran street came and offered us some coffee so honestly the people are very friendly. Yesterday as we were working people were bringing water with Ice you know so the people have been very much positively responsible and appreciated about it Mayor Bernard and the other municipalities that got involved in part of this made up campaign."
And perhaps the people have been so kind to this cleaning crew because many were so overwhelmed by the debris that they hardly knew where to start.
Cherisse Halsall:
"Were you surprised sir by the overall devastation that you've been able to witness here?"
Earl Trapp, Mayor, San Ignacio & Santa Elena
"Oh yes, I didn't realize that it was so devastated you know I know San Ignacio all we, there were more trees um, damages to trees but the infrasturcutural damage was very minimal you know and as we drove yesterday coming to Belize City we realized that the devastation was more immense as we got closer into the city and into the city itself so yes the people here really took a packing from this hurricane and I believe it is even thought we may have works that needs to get done in our municipality we have to honestly be concerned about Belize City that was devastated because we never know when it will come knocking at our door and we will need support from our brothers and sisters."
That fist three days of support was critical but Wagner says it's an effort that was overdue, even perhaps before the hurricane.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City
"The city for years has never had this type of clean up effort and I think many times when we go through challenges that exist this gives the city an opportunity to really clean itself and sanitize itself to get its house in order and I believe we are well on our way to that. This cleanup was slated for three days. I don't believe it will be completed within three days I believe it will be about 10 more days of intense cleaning and thereafter our city council staff could start to then really do the mop up."
Cherisse Halsall:
"We know that on the coast one of the problems has been all this thick mud that came in off the sea, what is being done about that?"
Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City
"Yeah I witness that mud on the hurricane day coming in when the surge was coming in right behind the city hall you could see this huge chunk of mud. That's a built up over the years at the mouth of the Belize river where the water taxi goes. It is unfortunate that we weren't able to do the dredging. They were just about to start with the dredging, the port authority before Lisa came and all that silt was pushed into the city and we are working very closely with the fire department to use their hose and their water to really flush out but it's thick, thick layers of mud so in some areas we have to really shovel the mud into trucks then the pressure water truck from the fire department washes it away."
And by this morning Belize City's Mayor has announced that with just 1/3 of the Belize City clean an additional 12 days of clean up efforts will take place throughout this municipality.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City
"It has some ways to go still, based on yesterday loads that we put out on Friday we were able to put out 125 loads which really amounted to 2625 tons yesterday we did much better. We went to 208 loads which was in the neighborhood close to 3000+ tons so we are near about 6,000 to 7,000 tons of garbage that we have taken out already. I did a tour of the city and I still believe we are at about 25% after today concludes we will be at about 40% so we still have extensive work to do in the city."
