San Pedro and Caulker Residents Prepare for Beryl

San Pedranos and Caye Caulker residents have a good sense of when to evacuate, and even though Beryl’s course shifted northwards away from Belize, over four thousand residents of both islands still took no chance and sought shelter on the mainland. However, many remain in San Pedro and sought to batten down. In NEMO’s three o’clock media update today, we discovered that despite the caution issued, some merchants on that island are still looking to hike up the cost of goods, including plywood and sliced bread. Belize Rural South Area Representative Andre Perez and San Pedro Mayor Wally Nunez, who took part in the briefing, spoke on these issues.

 

Andre Perez, Area Representative, Belize Rural South

“That was a big issue, not only with the price of bread that was being sold at $5 and it was a regular size 16-ounce loaf, and the receipt shows that it is $5. I don’t want to aim or isolate that specific business location, but we have been aware of this specific location actually, having high prices with ease. So certainly we’re looking at it. Not only with food prices, but also the issue of certainly a couple of businesspeople and hardware stores selling the plywood. I think they the half inch sizes which was going for $110 – ridiculous prices – what we’re seeing and we are meeting and saying that we do not have any space for this type of business. I think these are unscrupulous businesses that take advantage of our community when, in fact, it is our community that gives them the opportunity to do business in San Pedro and by extension, in Caye Caulker as well. And that’s uncomfortable. It’s illegal as well, of course, to do that. But also, it’s an ethical man. You don’t do that to a community that is needed at the same time. So we know who they are. Mayor and I were very much discussing that we are going to be visiting these people and also to further mention that the bureau standards and we’re actively engaged with them and they are going to actually, to avoid this. It happens all the time. This is not the only time we’re seeing this, but especially in this extraordinary time where the storms is – we are under threat. No, but the point is we are looking at getting eight people trained. We have gotten the advice already from the Bureau of Standards. We’re going to get eight people and two for Caye Caulker to go through that training. So we have them permanently staffed here in San Pedro and Caye Caulker because it’s too much. We got to put a stop to it. And the evidence on that one was clear. Five dollars for a local bread, unacceptable.”

 

Wally Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro

“You can clearly see that there’s not that much people on the street because there’s a lot of people out there who left the island. So if we can put a word to it, it looks like a ghost town out there. We don’t have much people going around earlier today. We had some people that were doing their last-minute shopping, but after everything closed down at 12 o’clock, everybody went back home. Right now I am heading to another meeting and I will be out. And I will be checking out how it looks out there.”