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And DPM Cordel Hyde says it's better to be safe than sorry. That's after we asked him about the disruption to the business sector. He explained that the weather is unstable but it's better to lose a couple of business days than to be unprepared. But he added that no amount of preparation or communication, or even finances, can help us if a major hurricane heads directly toward us.
Cordel Hyde, Deputy Prime Minister
"We have to pay attention, we have to be alert, we have to stay keenly focused on this weather and this weather has been changing consistently and so if it means things are disrupted for a day or so then that's a small price we pay for being on the safe side of things. We don't want to get it wrong, we have to get it right, there was a time earlier in this week when it seemed like it was going completely north or more north than anything else then suddenly you hear, okay, Belize City has to be concerned, now it's gone back north but we just have to be on the safe side and make sure that we are paying attention to everything so I think we're in a good place, at least it appears that way. You know anything can happen for sure but for now we seem to have dodged this one."
Reporter:
"We know that people often a lot of the times don't even have the funds to even go out and buy their hurricane rations, is Cabinet, is the government going to look at some kind of contingency fund to assist constituents."
Cordel Hyde, Deputy Prime Minister
"Well, we know where we live, we know we're at the risk of hurricanes every year and it would seem to us that we are at more risk than we've ever been, that this season may be one for the ages and so we have to do everything that is possible within our financial means, within our resources to be prepared, there's a lot more things we have to do. It think the last week has really shown us where we have shortcomings, where we need to be better, where we need to coordinate better, where we can plan better, we can communicate better because I think people, while our professionals, the people at NEMO, the people at the MET office did a wonderful job in terms of communicating to people, still, some people may not have gotten the accurate message and may have still gotten more excited than they needed to be and so we have to look at all those things and make sure that we are prepared and in this time kind of go overboard in terms of trying to make sure that the shelters are ready, the shelters that need just a little bit of repairs, make sure that we get those up and running, make sure that where they may need more, that we try to find the resources to do those because in times like these you can't have enough shelters but and also coordinate better with public officers, coordinate better with our ministries, coordinate better with the public but it's a learning lesson and as we have seen with our brothers and sister in the Caribbean, if we get a really big hurricane, only God can help us."
