CitCo’s Final Preparation for 2023 Hurricane Season
It is less than two days before the start of the 2023 hurricane season and the Belize City Council is completing several projects, hopefully ahead of the rains. Keeping drains free of debris that may block the runoff of flood waters and the completion of a pump station in the Yarborough community are in the works. Mayor Bernard Wagner says that the work has been ongoing, but cooperation from the public is also needed.
Bernard Wagner
Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor
“It does not only start with the city; it starts with the residents, the community and the family participating and being active in getting together their own little disaster management plan within their homes and that really begin to expand out to the immediate community and it expands out into the city and into the wider country. So dah noh only about the city. Hurricane season dah noh just a one-year thing, but throughout the year and it’s constantly preparing. When the hurricane season is finished, we meet, start to see what went wrong and how we can improve in different areas. The main thing is about the city being able to respond quickly and having the maintenance plan in terms of our drains – really reshaping those drains and ensuring that they are connected because you can have a drain and it is not connected to nowhere. And so you have to ensure that it is connected and it is flowing to a canal and then the canal to the river and the river back out to the sea. So we are very optimistic of what we have put in so far. We are still behind in terms of the pumping station; that is slated to be completed on July the fourteenth, I believe. That is the last correspondent I had with those people that are putting together that pumping station. But if that is ready for July the fourteenth and we cross our fingers that nothing happens before then, we will then prepare the canals, really dredge the canals – we can’t do it before the pumping station is completed. But we call on residents to be mindful of what they are throwing in the canals. We are still facing a huge challenge where we are seeing the mattresses, the old stove, the old refrigerator being thrown and it will create big issues in respect to that pumping station because God forbid if one of those reach in that area, it could really damage the equipment there. So we have to start at the family and about really informing the public of cleanliness.”
On Wednesday, the Belize City Council, through the City Emergency Management Organization is hosting a Building Disaster Resilience Symposium at the Biltmore Plaza.
