Flooding but No Major Incidents in During Weekend Rains

And while the weekend rains may have led to minor flooding, there were no major incidents because of the bad weather. The National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) says that, fortunately, there no instances where persons were indeed of rescue. NEMO’s National Coordinator, Daniel Mendez, elaborated on the work that was set in place to ensure the safety of citizens.

Daniel Mendez, National Coordinator, NEMO: “There was no need for anyone to utilize the shelters. We had personnel on standby, the district offices were in operation and they were prepared to take in people as necessary but there was no need for anyone to move into any shelter. We have been monitoring this system along with the National Met Service and the National Hydrology Service. They have been advising us on the potential for flooding, we’ve been looking at the flood forecast, we were looking at the weather forecast. We had also activated our district offices. Our district offices have been in communication with their counterparts in that area so you know NEMO operates at different level. We operate at the national level, we operate at the district level through an organization called DEMO the District Emergency Management Organization and we also operate at the community level. So at the district level we did have people on alert. We did have people going out an doing frequent checks. We were sending out periodic advisories to the country.”

Mendez also provided advice to person living in flood prone areas and spoke on the work ahead to enhance their emergency plans.

Daniel Mendez, National Coordinator, NEMO: “I think first and foremost it’s just asking everyone, all the public, to remain vigilant and to keep listening to the advisories from the MET service and to the advisories that we would be sending out. I think it’s important for all Belizeans to remain vigilant and to be prepared. Make sure you have your plan in place in case you need to implement it and to make sure you know what to do if something happens. We will continue to monitor it throughout the next few days and we will be providing any assistance and information as necessary to the public.”

Reporter: And in terms of the most recent advisory what can persons look forward to in terms of maybe the severity or the persistence of the rain ? 

Daniel Mendez, National Coordinator, NEMO: “The latest advisory from the MET Service indicates that the rains will continue for the next few days. So with the rain of course there’s always the possibility of flooding events that could be localized flood events so we just need to continue to monitor it to be prepared and to remember that we are still in the hurricane season and that there are still a few more weeks left and we cannot forget that we have to keep our guard up all the time. So we will continue to stress that for the rest of the season.”