Belize City Prepares for TS Lisa; CEMO is Ready

In Belize City, a disaster preparedness plan has also been put in place by the City Emergency Management Organization to ensure the safety of residents during the passage of Tropical Storm Lisa. Taking its cue from NEMO, a meeting was held earlier today with members of the Belize City Council where a decision has been made to activate the Emergency Operations Center on Wednesday.  Melanie Dawson, the liaison officer for CEMO, spoke with reporters this afternoon and shared with us the strategy going forward.

Melanie Dawson

Melanie Dawson, CEMO Liaison Officer

“This morning, we’ve had our state of readiness meeting with the Belize City Council members, the city administrator and everyone else on our team.  We’ve basically come to a conclusion after listening to the press conference this morning with NEMO and the Met Office and from the information they gave of Tropical Storm Lisa which will land in Belize on Wednesday, late Wednesday night into Thursday morning.  We’ve made our preparations by that and with that we will be fully activating our EOC on Wednesday morning and that will lead us, with advice from NEMO, of when we should open shelters.  But more than likely shelters will be open on Wednesday, in the morning as well.”

Isani Cayetano

“Have you guys conducted, perhaps, a preliminary assessment of some of the areas that you would have to concentrate on in terms of evacuations and citizen safety ahead of this system?”

Melanie Dawson

“Yes, we do have main areas of our focus that we normally put aside.  So these areas would be like the Gungulung area, the flood prone areas, Jane Usher, Belama which is one of the main areas right now.  So, with that done from our assessment and previous situations, we are planning to open shelters in those constituencies closer to those flood prone areas.”