Free Zone damaged but should reopen by weekend
Less than two days after Hurricane Dean put the hurt on northern Belize, rebuilding has begun and authorities are assessing the damage in advance of more structured relief efforts. This afternoon our crews ranged as far as the Hondo River and we’ll begin our coverage right there at the Commercial Free Zone. It’s a place that the average Belizean does not enter—or at least is not supposed to enter—but the C.F.Z., just south of the Mexican border, is actually the part of Belize that came closest to the eye of Hurricane Dean. News Five’s Marion Ali is just back with a report on how the area fared.
Marion Ali
The entrance to the Free Zone gave a preview of what the interior would look like. There were torn signs and banners, downed trees, and broken fences. Once inside, the picture looked far worse. But while these buildings suffered damages, they were mostly superficial. Gina’s Plaza, P & P Plaza and SP Plaza were the exceptions.
Vijay Punjabi, Co-owner, SP Plaza
“Well as you can see, the glasses are all broken, the side facial’s gone up. Inside we don’t know how the position, we are waiting for the insurance people to come so was can go and assess all of the damages. Inside the plaza nothing much has happened, everything is fine.”
Marion Ali
“So your goods have been protected?”
Vijay Punjabi
“No they are not protected, part of it, because of the glasses broken, so the water must have gone inside I assume.”
Marion Ali
“What kind of measures did you take to secure your building before the storm?”
Vijay Punjabi
“There was nothing that could be done because I had a whole front glass wall, there was no way we can put ply wood or something because the frame was done in such a way, we couldn’t put anything. So we couldn’t do anything much, we put some tapes on the glasses and that’s all that we can do.”
Marion Ali
“So what do you do now?”
Vijay Punjabi
“Just wait for the insurance to assist then we start to fix it back. As you can see, we’re already preparing the blocks and all to put the wall again, and just get back to work again.”
Punjabi’s thirty-five employees will also be affected as they will be out of work for the next few days while the repair crew refurbishes the damaged building. This delay will mean between forty and fifty thousand dollars in losses for his business. Another merchant who will also lose out on several days of business is Mahadev Moryani, owner of P & P Plaza.
Mahadev Moryani, Owner, P & P Plaza
“Everything is wrecked and I’ll have to take long time to fix it, plus I will be losing business. Even though its insured, we don’t know when the insurers will come and when the insurance will repay us.”
Marion Ali
“Did you take any measures to secure your place, put shutters down and so forth?”
Mahadev Moryani
“Yes, we put shutters down and on the glasses we put the tape, which you see, so that they don’t fly away but breeze was so strong, they couldn’t withstand.”
Marion Ali
“Have you estimated yet, how much of a loss you’ve suffered structurally, internally, water damage and so forth?”
Mahadev Moryani
“No, we have not touched the things. We are waiting for insurance inspectors to come, so then we can go through it and see what other damages are done.”
While these businesses will take several days to recoup, Chief Executive Officer of the Corozal Free Zone, Joel Cervantez, does not expect that business will be affected too severely and feels that by the end of the week the compound should be open for business.
Joel Cervantes, C.E.O., Corozal Free Zone
“Fully operational I would say, based on the electricity first of all, which we should be restored by on Satruday. I believe we will be ready by then. It is mostly debris from signs that fell down. Really and truly, we did get some damages on some buildings, as I guess you’ve gathered, but most of it was facially and a few zincs that flew off. There were a couple buildings that got their glasses broken but they weren’t properly prepared, they didn’t have shutters or anything, but we expect that by, if we work hard between now and Friday, by Saturday we should be fully operational again.”
“Really and truly the business, when our investors make their money on weekends at this time noh, so to quantify it, I couldn’t be able to tell you that because it’s a different scenario now, because it didn’t hit the Yucatan area per say, that hard. I couldn’t quantify that amount with what Mahahual and Chetumal got hit with. it’s mostly from the coast of Mexico, Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, Veracruz.”
Marion Ali
“Your clients?”
Joel Cervantes
“That is correct. Many people perceive as if it is Chetumal or Cancun or Playa Carmen and it isn’t. It is really people further down that really come to shop in the Free Zone.”
The Corozal Free Zone sits on two hundred and sixty-seven acres of land and houses three hundred and thirty-two businesses. Between eight hundred and a thousand people, mostly Mexicans, traffic through the free zone on a daily basis. Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.
