CEMO Prepares for Hurricane Season

The Belize City Council and the City Emergency Management Organization say they have a plan in place for the hurricane season which is now underway.  CEMO will be working with the private sector, N.G.O.s, communities and Government, to enhance its capabilities and strengthen capacity in order to preserve life and protect property in times of a disaster.  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the strategies had to be tweaked and today, the media was invited on a tour at the Trinity Methodist School in Belize City to see what the protocols at shelters are.

Melanie Dawson

Melanie Dawson, CEMO Liaison Officer

“At this point right now we will have shelterees who will be coming in. They will enter the gate and as you enter here at Trinity they have a wash station. As you enter so they will be able to wash their hands, soap, water and then after we will have a shelter manage to greet them by checking their temperature with the infrared temperature gauges. After they will enter, a next shelter manager will be at the desk to give them their shelter log forms for them to fill up.”

Michael Norales

Deputy Mayor Michael Norales, Councilor for CEMO

“We also have people who will go into these communities to make sure that they are well educated when it comes preparedness part of it. We also demand heavily on the CDRTs they are the community disaster response team, trained by the Red Cross. The reason why our wardens and so on could deal with whatsoever occurs at a shelter it is because we have gone through a lot of training. So we do a lot of education on a constant basis.”