At the top of the news, we told you all about the devastation caused by flooding, which happened all over the country this weekend. Those were the impacts caused by to the outer bands of Hurricane Julia, which swept across Central America over the holiday weekend.
As always, NEMO was tasked to respond to all calls for distress, and they opened hurricane shelters in the parts of the country that were most impacted by the flash floods. During the NEMO virtual press conference today, the Coordinator, Colonel Shelton Defour, shared details about the over 100 people who had to seek shelter from floods. Here's his report on the NEMO response to this storm:
Colonel Shelton Defour - NEMO Coordinator
"We have currently - if you want the updated information - a total of 104 persons in six shelters in the Cayo district, primarily in the area of Call Creek, Bullet Tree, where the flooding effect is the most devastating, as you know, for the period of late Sunday into Monday and this morning. The shelterees - as we referred to people who go into shelters - were adequately supported with the basic food packs and things that we have, and water, as was requested late yesterday evening for the community of Bullet Tree, where they had a water problem. So, we had to quickly truck in some water so that the residents who were affected could have access to potable drinking water. And as we speak, we have teams going out right now with members of the security forces, along with the relief supplies committee representatives over in Cayo, distributing food to the affected population."
Reporter
"What can you tell us about the damages that people's homes sustained?"
Colonel Shelton Defour
"It's very preliminary at this stage because the water is still up. And in the case of the Mopan River communities, the area that has been affected the most in terms of the Mopan river communities, the water has risen four inches in the last five hours. So, mostly household items, but when you look at the terrain itself, you know that definitely a lot of farms have been impacted. You know, we saw vehicles in Benque, you know, flooded out. We saw, you know, various equipment. And so the losses we cannot really estimate at this time. It would be too early. If we cannot see, we can assess it. So we're waiting until the water goes down, and then we are able to give a better report on the impact in terms of the level of damages."
