Beryl Spares San Pedro

Up to very early this morning, Mayor Wally Nunez and the San Pedro Town Council were out assisting residents to reach the Sage Brush Hurricane Shelter in time, just in case Hurricane Beryl jogged south and tore through Belize. The category three hurricane was packing winds of over a hundred and thirty miles per hour, as it neared the northern coast. It eventually tracked northwards as meteorologists forecasted. Today, News Five’s Marion Ali was on the ground in San Pedro today. Here’s that report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

When we arrived in San Pedro at a few minutes to nine this morning, most of the homes and smaller businesses were still secured with sheets of plywood. Larger businesses were shuttered. La Isla Bonita is an island teeming with traffic, but there was hardly any of that before midday. The town hall was still battened down, but atop its roof, the green flag flew, signalling that the “all-clear” had been declared. In the centre of town, a businessman removed the sandbags he had used to secure his property. A few miles north in San Mateo, residents were returning home after seeking shelter elsewhere.

 

Tyrone Young and Lilian Rivero had to secure their pets inside their homes since the shelters did not allow animals. They were happy to return to them today.

 

Lilian Rivero, Resident, San Mateo Area, San Pedro

“We prepared everything from two days before; thank God nothing happened. We didn’t stay here because as you can see, it’s low and we are at the side of the lagoon, so we had to move out. We went to stay in a hotel overnight and we are just coming in, fixing everything, taking off plywood, fixing everything again in its place. As soon as we get a little bit of rain, we get all here flood up.”

 

Marion Ali

“So a hurricane would definitely had left you flooded.”

 

Lilian Rivero

“Yes, that’s why we were on alert.”

 

Marion Ali

“And you have several pets. Where did you put them?”

 

 

 

Lilian Rivero

“They stayed inside of the house. Just now we released them out. There’s a little cat over there also. They were fine in there. Thank God nothing happened. But if it was going to be flooded, they were safe inside.”

 

Tyrone Young, Resident, San Mateo Area, San Pedro

“At first it was, you know, [I was] on the brink of tripping because, well, we don’t know if it’s going to really get to be more than a category one, category two, what stage it is, because you’ve got to be up here for unexpected, right? The tide was already raising at the bridge. It was already coming like drastic so I was like you said, panicking a bit, but at the same time be on a safe side, send a couple prayers, and you’ll be alright. I got to get back to get back to reality, right? Taking back the stuff down, hoping for the stores to open up.”

 

 

 

John Velasquez also decided to secure his home and then seek higher ground. He believes his house would have suffered damage, had Beryl made landfall in northern Belize.

 

John Velasquez, Resident, San Mateo Area, San Pedro

“It comes from the north and it’s very – it’s not so really strong, you know, but it could cause a little bit of damage. But thank God, nothing happened, you know. I went for to a shelter and I just come back right now.”

 

 

 

 

 

Along with their respective families, Rivero and Velasquez sought shelter at hotels on the island.

 

Over at Sagebrush Church, one of two official hurricane shelters, sixty persons sought refuge for the night. After the final NEMO meeting, the Belize Rural South Emergency Coordinator was grateful that residents heeded the warning.

 

 

 

 

 

Vanessa Parham, District Emergency Coordinator for Belize Rural South

“This storm could have – we could have been like Barbados, we could have been like the Windward Islands and, you know, and we’re grateful to see that our residents actually heeded our caution. And for that, I am very grateful.”

 

 

 

 

 

Marion Ali

“Looking back at it, was there something that you would like to have seen, maybe work out a little smoother or next time, is there anything that if you are ever put through this again, that you’d like to work out a little better?”

 

Vanessa Parham

“That is a great question. There is always room for improvement. As you know, San Pedro has around 20,000 people living here. We have Caye Caulker and we have to take into consideration that people also have their livelihoods, when I mean they’re working. They have families, they have children in school. And so to see how we can best adopt a more earlier preparation phase when it comes to evacuations.”

 

 

 

 

Mayor Wally Nunez spent the better part of Thursday night working to ensure that all their plans were put into effect, and by ten a.m., the council and its staff were already back at work.

 

Wally Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro

“Our town council staff actually showed up to work today at 10. The main purpose was to get prepared for next week, to get our computers and everything back in order. However, we did notice that we had good staff showing up and we opened the town council. So it is open at the moment. We have like a skeleton staff because we don’t have everybody on board and we understand that.”

 

 

 

 

Area Representative Andre Perez is also the Minister of Disaster Risk Management. He is satisfied with what can now be regarded as a successful test run.

 

Andre Perez, Minister, Disaster Risk Management

“We had almost 5,000 people that moved out of the islands, both islands of Caye Caulker and Ambergris Caye, so, that says a lot about a community that did heed to the storm and that we were telling them to be watchful of this, that we had to – we had a threat in front of us. So, while we have people saying, you know, nothing happened. We are guided by what the med service tells us and indeed, it’s a storm that is very threatening and did damage to different countries, we got spared. So the next time it comes around, we still do the same thing.”

 

 

 

While officials closely monitor weather forecasts over the next five months of this hurricane season, Lilian Rivero joked that this scare was enough for the rest of the year.

 

Lilian Rivero

“I nuh even remember if it’s Friday. I don’t know if it’s Friday or what. Hopefully, no more come around.”

 

Marion Ali for News Five.