NEMO Says Disaster Risks Never Stop  

Hurricane season officially ends on November 30, but the National Emergency Management Organization is reminding Belizeans that disaster risks do not end with it. National Emergency Coordinator Daniel Mendez says people must stay prepared all year, not only for hurricanes but for fire, tsunami risk and more, while NEMO and the Met Service track the ongoing El Niño.

 

Daniel Mendez, National Emergency Coordinator

 “November 30th is the close of hurricane season, but November 30th is a month and a half away. Anything can happen between now and then. So the issue of being prepared is important. You must remain prepared at all times because you just do not know what will happen. You don’t wait until a hurricane appears or the storm appears on the horizon to start to make your plans. This is one of the things that we keep on doing throughout the season, throughout the year, from NEMO. You will always hear us speaking about preparing for disaster. A disaster is not only a tropical storm or hurricane related. We have to prepare for anything. We have to prepare for fire, tsunami risk. There’s a range of things that we need to prepare for. So it is really important that we as a people, we as individuals, remain prepared for anything all the time. Along with the Met Service, we are monitoring the continuing El Niño. It has been doing what the Met Service advised us, that we would have a less active season. But when it rains, it would be more intense. And this is what we’re seeing. So we continue to work along with them, not only looking at hurricane season, but looking past hurricane season, where we’re expecting the impacts to continue well into next year.”

 

Mendez says NEMO expects El Niño’s effects to continue into next year. NEMO is also developing a Community Emergency Response Team programme for certain areas in Belize City.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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