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The Hurricane Beryl buildup that's been playing out all this week may turn out to be just a really good dry run for everyone to test their personal and organizational disaster response mechanisms.
For NEMO, one of the most critical areas that needs to be addressed is public messaging. The fact is, how regular folks receive and respond to information on major weather events is critical.
A survey by "opinions.bz market research" revealed that 65% of the 540 respondents first learned about Hurricane Beryl via social media and 20% learned of it through the internet.
TV was only a small percentage and radio was not even mentioned. True, it's an internet poll, but it also shows a major shift in how the public accesses information - often from informal and unofficial sources which is how misinformation can easily spread.
To learn more, our summer interns Halle Fuller and Clifford Mejia went to the streets of Belize City to get feedback on Hurricane Beryl "cone of perception".
With so much messaging about Hurricane Beryl - we wondered who are people really listening to, which information sources do they trust, follow and believe? And are official sources being crowded out by noise messaging and scaremongering?
People we spoke to on the street expressed distrust of official sources:
Reporter:
"Do you trust Nemo or the MET service with the information?"
Stephanie Rodriguez, Local
"Well to be honest I trust it because you know, they give like, to make everybody know what is happening in the country. So they are advising everybody about the hurricane and them thing. But you know some people don't believe because they say Nemo like lie and thing about the hurricane, but I know its a serious thing you know?"
Local
"Well, the internet."
Gilbert Carr, Local
"Well American news done know like they more accurate."
Reporter:
"So you think American news is more accurate than Belizean news?"
Gilbert Carr, Local
"Yes because they have more technology and thing they more advance than we. When we get it it's because it was yesterday's news."
Llewell Manuuel, Local sales man
"And then weh happen the people they down yah the tell you something different, right deh suh they the confuse the whole thing because they the give a Hurricane warning but then the international news done the tell you well ih shift and from deh ih a more head to America, you understand mi such we woulda want they start give we more precise thing and men they go more along with the International radar."
Reporter:
"Who do you trust to get your information from about the hurricanes?"
Pink Panther, Local
"I trust Miami. The weather center at Miami because sometimes the ones here don't know what they're saying."
Harry Longsworth, Local
"The only weather we a get dah rain and we a drink more badman, that dah the only weather we a get sir"
"You hya mi because with they weather yah call fih a drink."
And while some go by the Badman barometer, others by the National Hurricane Centre, but what does NEMO have to say in response to these concerns? We spoke with the National Emergency Coordinator and the Communications Officer for NEMO to understand what they're doing to dispel disinformation and promote accurate information on social media.
Reporter:
"Can you elaborate on the specific challenges NEMO has faced from posts containing false information about the hurricane, and what steps are being taken to address this?"
Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator for NEMO
"Thank you for your question. As you are aware, in any event, there is always false information there. Always, incomplete and inaccurate information that goes around, and this is being posted by different people for different reasons. What we do or what we are attempting to do at NEMO is to provide accurate information to the public in a timely manner. So this year, as you will see us being more, out in the open with the media, we are really experimenting with this, and trying to use social media, using the power of the media to get our information out, in an accurate information that people need and, and not misleading information that they may be hearing from other sources."
Reporter:
"And with the rapid pace and high volume of information on social media, how does NEMO ensure that the information being disseminated is accurate and timely?"
Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator for NEMO
"The accuracy of the information is important. we do, ensure that at all levels, we look at this. you know, NEMO is a system. And there are we do get information from many different sources across government and our partners. We do a quality control, check, and we do ensure that what we put out is, is, of course, important. I acknowledge we do or there are some errors that have been made. we use that all of that as a learning tool that everything we do is in order to improve, what we put out into the public."
Reporter:
"What strategies are NEMO taking to improve public engagement and trust through social media? And how are you measuring the effectiveness of these strategies in terms of public safety and preparedness?"
Nicole Zetina, Communications officer for NEMO
"Currently we are we only have a Facebook page. So we do, intend to create other forms of social media. Nemo has not been utilizing social media for a very long time, or any media on a whole. And so we do understand that a large populace listens to news, watching news and or on social media. We are trying to put together something where it reaches everyone from all age ranges. So we are it's a it's a challenge. I'm not going to lie. It is a challenge to try to engage with people of all ages. We need to ensure that everyone understands the information while also sharing accurate and timely information like Mr. Mendez said. So this is a learning curve for us. Currently. We're experimenting with our Facebook page and we look at the comments, we read them. We take your criticism. So thank you so much because it helps us to strengthen what we want to do for the future."
Is PM Responsible For NEMO's Mixed Messages?
And some of the conflict with messaging was also reflected in NEMO. The organization put out a bulletin yesterday saying businesses in Belize, Orange Walk and Corozal should have closed by noon today.
And then by 6:00 am this morning they said businesses in Belize District should open.
And then this afternoon at 1:00 another NEMO advisory said that businesses in Orange Walk should open.
Mixed messages and we wondered if the Prime Minister's push to keep the economy active caused it. Here's what he told us yesterday:
Belizean Tony Award Winner Speaks To Sunup
And finally tonight, Kara Young, an American actress with Belizean roots joined the Sunup crew this morning. She won the best actress at the Tony Awards three weeks ago and told Sunup what it's been like since then:
Kara Young, Belizean Heritage Tony Awards Recipient
"The fact that this third consecutive nomination made history felt very kismet because of the third nomination being for this particular character for and in Pearly Victorious so in Ozzie Davidson's Pearly Victorious and I think we talking about these giants who have paved the way for black artist to be present on the stage in today's world and to this present day and so I feel like its paying homage to them and I feel like, I know this sounds crazy but If feel like it belongs to so many other people. There's just been so many people who have poured into me my whole little baby theater career. And I just feel like it belongs to them, to my community, it belongs to the community that raised me. It belongs to my teachers that, for musical theater, for theater, you know when I was a kid and doing mime.There's so many people who have just poured into me this whole time that it just doesn't seem like it's just me that feels like it's about community."
"This is incredibly special. I'd like to reiterate that it's beyond me. I'm a Harlem girl, I'm a Belize girl. This is for Harlem, this is for Belize, it's bigger than me."
