REPORT PRESENTED ON THREE WEEK EXERCISE

August 24, 2006

A report was presented today at NEMO Headquarters in Belmopan. This marks the conclusion of a three weeks exercise undertaken by the Joint British Civil Military Group and NEMO. Love news spoke with NEMO’s national Emergency Coordinator Colonel George Lovell. 

Colonel George Lovell:

“We had the report presentation from the exercise that the joint British civil military cooperation group and the National Emergency Management Organization had over the last three weeks that finally concluded with a report.  The report was presented today and we had representation from PAHO, from UNICEF, from UNTD, from Red Cross, from a number of governmental agencies which include Belize Defense Force, we had from the Ministry of Education, from the Ministry of Works, The Ministry of Health.  We also had from the British High Commission represented and the U.S. Embassy and the Press.  What it is, it is a report that sort of put together some of the issues that were exposed as a result of some of the surveys that were by the group over the last three weeks and the tabletop exercise that was held on the 21 and 22 of this month.  hese issues do create some challenge for us and we now have to go back to the drawing board and look as a nation and look at the hurricane is a creation plan that we have and see how best we can tweak them to serve our population.” 

Lovell said they identified areas that can be improved. 

Colonel George Lovell

“Things like shelters, do we have the capacity in the thatchment area and are we well- prepared to, for destruction for the people that may need to be evacuated into the Belmopan, Cayo District.  Concerns like, should Belize City be an area that will be an area that will see total evacuation or will we say that people will be safe in the shelters that we have in Belize City.  Those are some of the issues, main critical issues that we certainly need to look at in the interim.”   

Colonel George Lovell NEMO’s National Emergency Coordinator. 

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