SAN PEDRO DAILY, August 24, 2007,Belize,News,Features,Newspapers,Information,Resource,Caribbean,Ambergris Caye

Parts of Belize declared disaster area

The prime minister of Belize, Said Musa, has carried out an on-site inspection in the Corozal District following Hurricane Dean. Based on what he saw and the preliminary reports of the assessment of the damages he has declared the Corozal District a Disaster Area.
There is extensive damage to many homes in Corozal Town and the surrounding villages. Many homes lost their roof and suffered extensive damage to their bedding and other household items. Power lines are down and the entire district is without electricity.
Fruit crops were destroyed, that is, mangoes, avocado, coconut, cornfields blown down and sugarcane fields water-logged and the papaya plantations completely wiped out. Trees were blown down in many areas. At this point there seems to be no extensive flooding.
The prime minister has met with many affected families who did not sleep in their homes on Tuesday night. He has assured them that financial assistance and disaster relief will be provided to them as a matter of urgency in order for reconstruction to take place as soon as possible. Read More

NEMO updates on relief supplies to disaster areas

NEMO advises the public that included with the relief supplies sent to the Corozal District today were 717 five-gallon water containers along with dry food items and emergency power generators.
NEMO also informs that in the Corozal District there are eight shelters housing 180 persons. Additionally, food is being provided to those people who remain in their homes but are unable to access adequate food supplies.
Belize Electricity Limited continues to restore power to the affected areas. Their reports indicate that in San Pedro, 90% of the electrical supply has been restored. From Belize City to the southern-most part of the country, there are no power problems. In the Orange Walk District, 80% of power has been restored. BEL has assured NEMO that sometime this evening, the main transmission line to Corozal is expected to be connected. The first priority will be to restore power to the Northern Regional Hospital. Today six generators were also sent to Corozal including 250 gallons of Diesel to power those generators.
Five persons in Patchakan village were treated for diarrhea and ten in the village of Chunox. Five medical teams were assigned in the various zones of the disaster areas. These medical teams consist of one doctor, one public health nurse, one environmental health officer and one health educator.
Tomorrow, more boxes of relief supplies will be arriving in Belize, courtesy of UNICEF. Expected to arrive will be boxes of water containers, oral re hydration tablets and water purification tablets.
The relief effort continues on Friday when more disaster supplies will be sent to the stricken areas of the Corozal and Orange Walk Districts. Read More

NEMO Estimates Damage from Hurricane Dean at $50 million

The Red Cross estimates that Hurricane Dean left 1,800 families either homeless, without basic necessities such as food and water, or out of jobs. And today, after two days of aerial and ground assessments, NEMO Minister Godfrey Smith says the storm’s financial toll is in the millions. How many million? Well, Smith says it may be as much as $50 million.
Hon. Godfrey Smith, Minister of NEMO
“Its approximately fifty million Belizean dollars. Of that I can say about $20 million is for housing and the rest is related to agriculture and other infrastructural loss as well as loss of future income. If papaya trees go down, it takes money to put it back up as well as in the meantime the foreign exchange you would have earned in the time it takes to get it back is also lost so that has to be calculated in the figure as well.”
But as you heard earlier, Hurricane Dean victims are complaining that they aren’t getting basic necessities such as zinc sheets and basic provisions. Smith says that yes, everyone needs help but it will take time.
Hon. Godfrey Smith,
“This is a disaster and that is why the areas have been called disaster areas. Everybody can’t be attended to at the same time, people want their needs addressed immediately. Not all of them can be reached immediately but I am fairly confident that needs will be addressed such as getting food to them, getting water to them, trying to ensure they have generators in place so that illnesses don’t set in. As we speak some 20 generators should be on their way or very shortly on their way to the disaster areas. One by one we are going down the checklist of things to do but as usual in a situation like this, things tend to be chaotic; everybody calling you, everybody wants everything addressed immediately. We have to stay calm and focused and deal with things very logically, village by village. That is what we hope.”
Keith Swift,
Sir are we facing a crisis in the north because we have people who have lost everything; they have no jobs, they’ve lost their homes, and they don’t even have anything to eat?
Hon. Godfrey Smith,
“You raise an important point. While we in Belize City and other places are probably totally back to normal, a crisis is a situation where I have lost my home and I don’t know where another home will come from. So I would have to admit that yes, for many families it is a crisis but I think it is a situation that can be dealt with. It may take a little time, as it does in any country where a disaster has hit but I don’t think it will get out of control.”
And where will the $50 million come from? Well Smith says that Prime Minister Said Musa is currently in Honduras at a heads of government of Central America meeting where he is lobbying for financial assistance. We are informed that the President of Taiwan is attending, and the PM is asking for a disaster relief package. He left this morning and was scheduled to return this evening.
On a related note, 7NEWS is informed that hurricane recovery veteran, James Jan-Mohammed, who’s been in charge of San Pedro’s disaster response for years, has been assigned to take over the relief and recovery operation in the Corozal District disaster area starting tomorrow. Read More

KHMH Revisited Plan to Shut Down During Hurricane Dean

With the threat of Hurricane Dean very real on Monday morning, the KHMH’s Board decided to send all the patients to Belmopan and close down the hospital. It was a controversial decision because the KHMH is the national referral hospital. But as CEO Dr. Alvaro Rosado told us on Monday, it was a plan agreed upon six years ago. But plan or not, it turns out the KHMH didn’t close down, at least not completely. Rosado says at 4 pm a countermanding decision was made to keep the hospital open with skeleton staff. The news tonight though is that Dr. Rosado says closing down the entire hospital wasn’t a good idea and it won’t be repeated.
Dr. Alvaro Rosado, CEO – KHMH
“At 4 o’clock the team met again and decided that based on information that NEMO had given, assuring us that there was only going to be tropical storm winds in the city, that we would continue with emergency services at KHMH. So we remained opened. I must thank the staff very very much for volunteering to stay throughout the storm in Belize and we had more than enough people to man the emergency room and it was open all throughout the night. We did have a few admissions. There were two ladies who went into labor and they were brought to the KHMH.”
Keith Swift,
In the future, do you think the policy will change at the KHMH and the hospital will, at the threat of a storm, close it doors?
Dr. Alvaro Rosado,
“I think Keith we have to look at what’s on the ground because these are the things that would dictate the decisions that we make. The decision to evacuate Belize City was based on the fact that an engineer had given us the information that he was not guaranteeing that this building could take a category one hurricane.”
About 5% of the staff was on duty in Belize City. That accounted for 4 doctors and 24 nurses. Dr. Rosado says the KHMH is assisting the Corozal Town Hospital with human resources. The KHMH has sent 2 doctors, 5 nurses, and 2 attendants to relieve workers at the Corozal Hospital who have been Working non-stop because of the hurricane emergency. He says they are prepared to send more personnel if necessary. Read More

NOTICES/LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A big THANK YOU to Jim Janmohammed of NEMO (and island father) and Eiden Salazar of Reef Radio for all your assistance and support during the storm.
Jim, a military man, executed a perfect evacuation and continued control of Ambergris and Caye Caulker from his command post. Jim kept people and their possessions safe. Thank you Jim!
Eiden and his staff stayed to broadcast Jim's instructions and Mr. Panton's weather updates on a regular basis. Keeping track of the storm was addicting as it was heading straight for us. Thanks for being there for us all! Good job Reef Radio!
May the people of the Yucatan (one of the poorest parts of Mexico) and Nothern Belize find the strength to pick up the pieces and move ahead.
Cris B

THOUGHT OF THE DAY
The pessimist sees difficulty
in every opportunity.
The optimist sees the opportunity
in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill

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