Mock disaster evacuation

The hurricane season officially starts on June first, however, the National Emergency Management Organization, NEMO has been preparing itself in case the country is threatened by another storm this year. Last week, NEMO began a hurricane simulation exercise revolving around the fictitious storm Sylvia. Today the pretend storm was “located” two hundred and fifty-five miles east, southeast of Ambergris Caye. Belize is alert as the fictitious hurricane, which is moving at one hundred and seventy-five miles per hour is predicted to strike either the Corozal District or Chetumal at midnight tonight. As part of the exercise, close to two hundred students from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker were evacuated. The students arrived by boat at the Fiesta Inn Marina and then boarded buses for hurricane shelters in San Ignacio. The Belize City Council and the Traffic Department carried out this part of the drill.

Danny Madrid, Councilor, Traffic Department

“We are responsible for the passengers who came in this morning. We transfer them from Belize City out of the Belize City limits. That means getting out of the boats at a certain time, getting them into the buses, take a certain route that we are using and then go to San Ignacio where we have shelters for them. Once they leave the city then another group takes over and so on.”

Those evacuated are expected to remain in the shelters until NEMO, which meets late tonight in Belmopan, says it is safe for them to return to their homes. Meanwhile Chief Meteorologist Justin Hulse says while they have been stressing that Sylvia is not real, the MET office has been swamped with calls from people who thought there was an actual storm out at sea. Hulse says he would like to remind the general public that the hurricane season does not begin until June first and it is extremely rare for any hurricane to form in May.