Work ethic kicks in for Placencia
On Tuesday, News 5’s Janelle Chanona and Rick Romero brought us the first look at the devastation on the Placencia Peninsula. Tonight their colleagues Jacqueline Woods and Brent Toombs are just back with an update from the same area. What they found is that despite an awkward start, the spirit of recovery is beginning to take hold.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
On Tuesday, in the immediate hours following Hurricane Iris, the reaction of many stricken residents was one of shock. The result was a type of stunned lethargy, a state of mind that did not bode well for a quick recovery.
Omar Guzman, Employee, Ministry of Works
“We will need a big effort to do this because this whole place it torn apart. As you can see, there’s debris all over the place. And I hate to say this, but I think these people need to know that they can’t expect something from nothing. They expect us to come and just do everything and this is their village, they should take pride in their village and try to give us an hand in cleaning it up.”
But today, the mood was beginning to change as people started to recover whatever they could to rebuild their community.
Jacqueline Woods
“This is just one of the many houses that was totally destroyed in Seine Bight Village. At this time, it is not certain exactly just how many buildings were destroyed or damaged, but Hurricane Iris did cause extensive damage in this community. Residents have been trying to find whatever pieces of materials they can to build back their homes, or some are simply looking for their household possessions that were blown away in the storm.”
Lucia Lopez, Teacher, Seine Bight Village
“People are trying to pick their lumber or zinc so that they can put some roof over their head because they never know what can happen. If rain come back, we’ll be all soaked again. My house is full of water and I emptied my shop so that some relatives can stay in. We’re trying at least to accommodate as much as what we can.”
Seine Bight Village lost about ninety-five percent of its buildings.
Lucia Lopez
“Most of the shops went down, the bars went down, the church went down, the old school building went down, a majority of the houses. It’s a devastating situation.”
Rueben Palacio Junior, Resident, Seine Bight
“I lose everything, everything that I have, from clothing, everything that I have. I value my house maybe forty-fifty thousand dollars, even my boat costs twenty thousand dollars.”
Jacqueline Woods
“So how do you think the family will recover from this?”
Rueben Palacio
“I decide to go in the village, maybe stay in the hurricane shelter until me and my kids put together and put it back, put the house back on its foot.”
Luciano Bermudez, Resident, Seine Bight
“We just came in and we’re taking out the things out of the house to at least do something to help ourselves.”
There is no electricity on the peninsula and residents are concerned that they have not yet seen any work crew from Belize Electricity Limited.
Glenford Eiley, Chairman, Placencia Village
“There is not even a light post standing in the sidewalk. We have a serious problem and I don’t see us restoring electricity here for a next week or so and that is a serious situation.”
Telephones lines are down as well and the only means of communication has been through the cellular service. We did observe a B.T.L. team assessing the damage and it is hoped that work will soon commence in restoring full service to the area.
Elements of the Belize Defence Force have been dispatched to the area to provide labour and security. Because of the danger of waterborne diseases, the Ministry of Health has been in the area assessing the situation to bring whatever medical supplies will be needed.
Jose Coye, Minister of Health
“Well we have been dispatching medical teams throughout the areas we can reach presently. Placencia is one, we also have Mango Creek and the Big Creek area. We have looked over Mango Creek and done a survey, we realise the problem that could come from waterborne diseases and food. But what we’re doing is getting chlorine so that we can help the people get the water to keep them where it can be drunk without any risks.”
In Placencia, many of the homes and resorts have been destroyed. Glenford Eiley, chairman of the village, remains optimistic that the peninsula, once described as a haven, will once again be buzzing with tourists, but admits they will need a lot of assistance to do it.
Glenford Eiley, Chairman, Placencia Village
“We are hoping that the lending institutions would look into this matter because there’s a lot of people here that are private entrepreneurs and they want to get going. It’s not people who don’t care to go work for people, we have a lot of small businesses that have been affected and I know that they have gone overboard already to get their business going. With all the taxes and the high interest rates as it is, it makes it very difficult for small people. And even with that, because of the tourist potential, people were investing.”
Eiley says people who lost their homes are being encouraged to do a damage assessment of their losses in order to get assistance.
Glenford Eiley
“The minister had come in and is asking that people do a personal assessment of the collateral damage on their homes. Because of the magnitude of the work for the small people, we will not be able to go out and physically assess each home.”
The villages have been receiving help from across the country. Truck and boatloads of supplies have been arriving much to the relief of the villagers.
Luis Garcia, Radio Ritmo, Cayo
“We started getting a lot of clothing and even food. At this time we have three truck loads of provisions that we are awaiting for NEMO to direct us if it is to go to Placencia, Seine Bight or where in the south of Belize.”
Javier Gutierrez, Belize Community Service, Cayo
“It’s amazing on how people just pool in and put all their efforts in such a time. We have a lot of clothes that have come in already, as well as some food, and the people are calling in and we are getting some more help. So I think that probably what we could do is share between Placencia and further south as well.”
Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
A press release from B.E.L. notes that until full power can be restored, the company has provided small portable generators to the command posts in both Placencia and Seine Bight.
