Corozal Town residents growing restive without services

At the epicentre of relief efforts is Corozal’s district capital. Today I returned to the beleaguered town to find—not surprisingly—that the longer it takes to restore basic services and provide supplies, the more impatient residents become.

Anne-Marie Williams, Reporting
Corozalenos who were devastated by Hurricane Dean are slowly putting the pieces of their lives back together. As we drove through the town, little restoration and clean up was actually going on. Largely because affected residents who can least afford to rebuild, say help is slow in coming.

Mark Cuellar who lives at his mother’s house, is literally left without a roof over his head and is in dire need.

Mark Cuellar, Left Roofless
‘It was just sitting down, listen to the news and then all of a sudden we just hear like the roof start to go piece by piece, yoh know. It start to ‘crekk crekk’, and from deh, blow off! And then like, he run underneath the table ina his room and then from there we start— I look fu he and I can’t find he because then it so dark. And I ask him, I seh ‘bwoi, weh path yoh deh?’, ih seh ‘bwoi, underneath the table.’ So from deh he seh ‘bwoi, well we can’t see’, an all of a sudden wah breeze just come inside and just start to move everything and like, you know, stir everything up. We didn’t board up our window, we just put some little things fih hold it, but then none ah the windows burst open, nothing, just the roof and the backdoor just blow in.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“You couldn’t afford to board up or…”

Mark Cuellar
“Well yea, I think that that’s a part, because right now I’m not working and then my other brothers them have their families also noh, to help my mom also, noh. My mom can’t work, so I think that is the problem though, that we couldn’t buy the materials in time to do it.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“What are you hoping for now?”

Mark Cuellar
“Well, for help.”

According to Corozal Town Mayor, Hilberto Campos, he’s tired of waiting for help for his people.

Hilberto Campos, Corozal Town Mayor
“According to NEMO, they have to wait on their homes and are having assessment crews coming supposedly today. I don’t know how quick they gonna get the help to them but the report is that the assessment team will come, make the assessment and tell them wait, that the help will be on the way. According to Major, the Major that was present—I don’t remember his name—but the money that will be distributed will be a thousand two hundred dollars grant if you’re really in need and if you could afford it, they’re gonna give you an eight thousand dollar loan which will definitely need collateral. So to avoid waiting for all of these things, the Corozal Town Council has been mobilizing any business that could—donation—that would give us a donation, and we have already, twelve thousand dollars. This morning we’re getting another pledge from Belize City, I believe it’s the mayor of Belize City and the President of the Mayor’s Association. They’re suppose to be coming up with a figure of nothing less than ten thousand dollars. These monies will be directly used to buy the construction material and to give these people the help as quick as possible. ”

He has opened an account for those wishing to contribute to the cause.

Hilberto Campos
“The Scotia Bank Account is 12211. Actually it is the Corozal Town Council Account but the transparency will be there, accountability will be there. We will render every document that we need so that’s not a problem. We don’t need to open another account right right now, we’re really busy. And I would want to clarify that my action in this is to get the help to these people as quick as possible. I am doing an— actually doing an assessment, the Corozal Town Council is personally doing an assessment in the houses, the roofs that got damaged; and that’s the specific area that we want to concentrate these monies to. Other than that, we are also— we got a pledge from Mr. Riverol, the guy that supplies purified water. We understand that prices have been jacking up. We need a six thousand watt generator to be donated to the council so that we could supply the electricity and then at the same time we gonna give free water to the entire town.”

And many in the entire town, Campos says, are hurting and uncomfortable.

Hilberto Campos
“Imagine you don’t have a place to sleep. A lot of people are coming that they need mattresses; they need sheets, a place warm to sleep. Most of their things got wet and not to say about the appliances and other commodities. But for right now, we’re looking at the essentials; we’re looking at reconstructing these people’s roof, or rooms where they sleep. I mean, you spend one night thinking about the other night, how long you gonna stay without a roof.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“Fortunately it’s not raining yet.”

Hilberto Campos
“Yea, that’s very good, I have to thank God for that.”

In a bustling town of seven thousand customers who are without light, it’s hard to keep morale up. However, B.E.L.’s C.E.O., Lyn Young is asking residents to keep the faith as they bring power back online.

Lyn Young, C.E.O., B.E.L.
“In Corozal the line that comes from the mainland, they have a sub-transmission line that feeds Corozal and Orange Walk. The on to Orange Walk, a lot of the poles are leaning but we were able to patch it up and get power down there last night actually. But the one to Corozal we have, I think it’s about nine poles broken and so we have to bring up poles from Belize City and change those poles. It’s a big job because some of them are in difficult to reach places, so I think we are probably looking at the weekend.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“So you are definitively saying that a portion of the town will get power at least by weekend and the restoration process will take max. two weeks? ”

Lyn Young
“Exactly, that is exactly the situation. Definitely the main backbone, if you wish, will have power. All the main feeders will have power by weekend but little spurs and stuff and some services off that where the mopping up will take place. And that will probably be another week on the outside, but I should say though, that even though they are repairing the main system, we have crews going about dealing with the little issues; so that when we do bring back on the power there are more people we can bring on at the same time.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“When the power comes to some people on the weekend, will the power be in spurts or it will be fully restored for them?”

Lyn Young
“Ann, the power to the whole country right now is tenuous because— that’s one of the reasons we have to inspect carefully because you don’t want when you connect something it creates a short and then brings down the entire system again.”

Residents are not only trying to cope with using candles but also finding innovative ways to live without precious water.

Jose Rodriguez, Corozal Resident
“They’re selling the water very expensive so we don’t have no water. At least we can bring over another water you know, for come help us. The other day we gone to the fire station for help us to, for a ladder noh. They didn’t pay no attention to us. So we want to see if they could help with us.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“So how you’re doing with water for bathing and cooking?”

Jose Rodriguez
“Well, we are not bathing. We do not have water. Cooking, we are just eating something fast, right. We just doing something fast to eat right now cause we don’t have water. We cannot make no soup, we cannot do no flour tortilla nothing.”

Ann-Marie Williams
“Are you concerned about the lack of sanitation because you don’t have water to flush the toilets or that?”

Jose Rodriguez
“No, we do not have that. We don’t have things to just— well we have to put it ina bag and you know, dash it weh or something. ”

And throughout all the lack of power, water and resources, the police department’s job is made even tougher; but officer in charge of Corozal, Supt. Joseph Myvett, is facing the challenge head on with one hundred officers in toe.

Joseph Myvett, O.C. Corozal Formation
“At any one time, we’re pushing out like five mobile patrols and about six or seven foot patrols within town. The curfew is also still in effect, from nine p.m. in the night until six in the morning. So far we have not had any problems especially as it relates to crime. There have been no reports per say, of any burglary since the aftermath of the hurricane. Each and every officer is equipped with flashlights as well as spot lights in the different vehicles and each team is assigned a radio, and also we have a sufficient amount of officers here at the Corozal Police Station to go there an assist any team that needs assistance at anytime.”

Belizeans at home and abroad wishing to render financial assistance to the Corozal Town Council can do so at Scotia Bank account number 12211.