All weather ambulance donated by Rotary

The donation of an ambulance is not all that unusual but today a particular type of ambulance was donated by the Rotary Club to the Belize Emergency Response Team, which will greatly expand BERT’s capabilities. Having the four wheel drive Toyota Land Cruiser means that in times of need, it’s that much more likely that help will be on the way.

Philip Zuniga, President, Rotary Club, Belize

“The Rotary as you know is a service organization, a voluntary organization. We look around to see what there is that the community needs that we can assist with. One of the things that we found out is that there is a need to have an ambulance and this ambulance was necessary because for example when Hurricane Keith came by we realized that was one of the key things necessary. There was a lot of water for example and they couldn’t get people past certain areas. So we found this possibility of donating this kind of ambulance.”

Yvette Burks, National Co-ordinator, BERT

“We are going to use it more specifically for the long distance runs especially in remote areas. Even before hurricane Keith we had a lot of problems. We’ve had calls out to Lemonal, Willows Bank and there is a very capable midwife who lives off road. We have been stuck there about three times in our regular units because the road is in very bad condition after rains and stuff. I can see we will get quite a bit of use out of this vehicle.”

Jose Sanchez

“I understand this vehicle can travel through rivers or flooded areas.”

Yvette Burks

“Yes it certainly can, I am as excited as a child about the snorkel. During Hurricane Keith you might remember that between here and Haulover Bridge how deep the water got and cars stalled because many of them got wet, this is like a good old Hum-V where the engine is sealed off and the intake section of it so you can go in to water which comes up above the tire safely and that’s going to make a big difference.”

The vehicle cost eighty thousand dollars and Burks says that they will now be able to stay operational during the high waters of a category three hurricane. BERT’s six vehicles and two airplanes respond to as many as three hundred calls per month.