NEMO Calls for Public Assistance in Damage Assessment Following Tropical Storm Sara

In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Sara, the National Emergency Management Organization is asking the public to assist with collecting data on the damage done. NEMO personnel have been deployed to affected areas to conduct damage assessments, but the process will take some time to complete. National Emergency Coordinator Daniel Mendez says that members of the public can help by filling out a survey on NEMO’s Facebook page, to speed up data gathering. The survey gathers information such as location and type of damage and also has a section where respondents can write comments to elaborate on the damage.

Daniel Mendez, National Coordinator, NEMO: “Post tropical storm we are doing assessments across the affected areas but what we need, what we’re asking the public to do is assist us in doing some self reporting. The self reporting is very important as it helps us to find out areas where we need to focus our attention but it also helps us in being able to be faster at the completion of the assessment report. So that’s the purpose of the release of the form. We’re asking persons who had that to utilize this link. It’s a very easy, very interactive system. It allows you to upload videos, pictures and it allows you to be able to give us information in a more rapid manner. You can find it on our Facebook page. It’s I believe we posted it yesterday and we will post it again to make sure. You know our teams have been on the grounds for many days now. We continue to be engaged with all our partners and we’re collaborating with all different ministries because every disaster carries many different components many different sectors are impacted so we are in close engagement with all of them to make sure we collect as much data as we can.”

Tropical Storm Sara hit Belize on Sunday, November 17, at a time when several areas of the country had already been grappling with flooding due to recent heavy rains.