NEMO Conducts Post-Mortem Meeting on Hurricane Beryl Response

While the named storm Beryl is now many miles away and has since downgraded to a tropical depression, it was only last week that it was a category five hurricane that brought threats and unease to Belize.  It spurred the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) into action only to see the storm drift away and head towards Mexico.  Yesterday, emergency officials convened in Belmopan to conduct somewhat of a post-mortem on the gaps, weaknesses and successes displayed last week.  This meeting, held primarily with the MET Service, is the first of several post mortem sessions.  As it relates to the weaknesses identified in NEMO’s response, Coordinator Daniel Mendez says the needed improvements have more to do with internal processes between and among key players.  

Captain Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator, NEMO: “You know that NEMO is a system and as a system there are many parts and there are many things that we have to keep an eye on during any event. So we are looking at working with all our partners, not just only the Met Service. Clearly they are one of the most important partners as we look at hydrometeorological events. But there are other places that we have to look at. So we’re looking at all parts of our system and looking at improving as best as we can in preparation for the next event. None of the work that we did has gone to waste. We have actually advanced a lot of the things that would be necessary to do. And so in the future, we will be able to respond more rapidly.”

One of the most evident gaps during NEMO’s performance last week had to do with communication and the sharing of information.  In one instance, there were the technical hiccups during press conferences and in a second instance, there were misinformation posted to their social media page.  Coordinator Mendez, however, did not concede to these gaps, but rather, he expressed satisfaction in NEMO’s communication performance.

Captain Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator, NEMO: “I think our engagement with the media is something that we did well and is something that we will take forward to the future. I think providing information as much as we can to not just the media but how we were able to reach all media houses at the same time. I think that is one of the practices that we had tried out, that we see that it worked and it’s one of the areas that we will continue to strive to improve.”

Also attending the post mortem was Minister of Disaster Risk Management, Andre Perez and his CEO Kennedy Carrillo.  It is to be noted that this is the first actual hurricane event for both Perez and Carrillo as they were recently assigned the portfolio of disaster risk management.  It is also the first event with Mendez as the NEMO Coordinator.