2012 Hurricane Season will be average

Phillip Willoughby

The National Meteorological Service is predicting that the 2012 hurricane season will be average to a little bit above average. It forecasts that the average number of named systems would be around nine of which six will become hurricanes and two are expected to be intense. While everyone is hoping that we will be spared this year, the City Emergency Management Organization (CEMO) is putting everything in place for any eventuality. Deputy Mayor Phillip Willoughby says that they have been working tirelessly and are ready for this hurricane season.

Phillip Willoughby, Security & CEMO

“The message is clear, we are prepared to deal with the upcoming hurricane season; all our committees have been meeting and postmortem have been done on the previous hurricane season and as well as looking at the whole picture and not to say we are limiting ourselves to only hurricane as a disaster but we are looking at the whole gamut of what disaster preparedness is such as the cruise ship industry; mass casualty; earthquakes and so forth and as well as any undetermined casualty at this time. We are dynamic enough to say that we have competent people are the table and have been meeting and we are prepared. The hurricane shelters for Belize City are: Pallotti High School on the north side; All Saints Primary; Trinity Methodist; University of Belize on ITVET Compound where you have the Engineering Building and Education Building; On the Southside, there is Grace Primary; Salvation Army; Maud Williams High; Queen Square Primary; St Luke’s Methodist; St. Martin’s Deporres; Unity Presbyterian Primary; Gwen Liz and St. John’s Vianney, respectively.”

Willoughby says they have also been working with NEMO in San Pedro on evacuation methods; and have invested in education on disaster preparedness along with mitigation factors in case of an emergency.